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THE GREEN GATE 
TO THE SEA 


BY 

ETHEL C. BROWN 

Author of “ The So-and-So Family,” 
“ The Three Gays,” etc. 


EDITED BY 

JEAN BROADHURST 
Associate Professor of Biology in Teachers 
College, Columbia University 


With Silent Reading 
Directions by Laura Zirbes 
of the Lincoln School of 
Teachers College 


SILVER, BURDETT AND COMPANY 

NEW YORK NEWARK BOSTON 


CHICAGO 


SAN FRANCISCO 


Copyright, 1924, by 

SILVER, BURDETT AND COMPANY 



rrf? 14 


THE GREEN GATE BOOKS 


In the Green Gate books you have only to 
swing open the little green gate cover and 
you will find the paths that lead to the sea, 
the fields and the woods. 

Your own house may not have a real green 
gate, but it has paths that lead to all the in¬ 
teresting out-of-door places. They may not 
look at all like paths to you. City children 
often have to take a trolley car instead of a 
foot-path when they go to the seashore or the 
woods. Many children who live right in the 
fields or woods have to travel for days on a 
railroad train before they can catch a glimpse 
of the ocean. 

If the paths are short ones, travel them often, 
until you find all the interesting and curious 
plants and animals described in these Green 
Gate books, and discover something about 
each one that isn't in these books or any other 

i >. i 

books you have seen. If you live too far from 



IV 


THE GREEN GATE BOOKS 


the country and the seashore to take these 
paths now, read here what you will find when, 
some day, you are able to walk through a real 
gate to the fields, or the woods, or the sea. 

Jean Broadhurst 











THROUGH THE GATE 


Long ago I stepped through the Green Gate, 
just as Elinor and Philip did, and found myself 
in the great world of Out of Doors, full of 
beautiful sights, mysterious sounds, and hidden 
wonders more marvelous than the fairy books 
tell of. 

The first path that I took was the Path to the 
Sea. I have followed it many times since then. 
Each time that I have done so I have learned 
something new about the sea creatures that I 
found there. I am still learning, and the more 
I come to know about them the more wonderful 
they seem. 

In describing what Elinor and Philip found I 
have told of things that any child might find 
on the sea beach. I hope that, as they grow 
older, the children who read this book and study 
the pictures I have drawn will want to learn more 
and more about these sea creatures, just as I 
have done, and as Philip and Elinor want to do. 

Ethel C. Brown 


“And when they reached the garden gate, 
Now what I say is true — ” 



CONTENTS 


CHAPTER , PAGE 

I. The Sea Beach 1 

II. The Crab.19 

III. The Starfish.33 

IV. The Horseshoe Crab .... 49 

V. The Sea Urchin.64 

VI. Shells.83 

VII. The Sand Dollar. 101 

VIII. Barnacles. 113 

IX. The Jelly-Fish. 127 

X. The Hermit Crab . . . .141 


vii 






ROCK POOLS 


Climb on the rocks when the tide goes down, 

Over slippery seaweeds green and brown; 

Brush them aside and search with care, 

A sea pool’s sure to be hidden there. 

Then — down on your knees! Lean on each hand. 
And gaze through its depths into Fairyland ! 

Through its crystal window you may see 
Green lights that glimmer fitfully ; 

Swaying curtains of silken sheen: 

A floor encrusted with pink and green ; 

Carpets of moss of a dozen hues, 

Grays and ambers and reds and blues. 

Soft sponges are fastened high ancMow; 

Little red crabs run to and fro ; 

There’s a sea anemone spreading wide 
Its flower-branches on either side : 

Beautiful shells lie here and there: 

Sea-things wonderful, strange, and rare. 

Into this world of awe and wonder 
Crashes a wave with a noise of thunder. 

From head to foot you are splashed with spray; — 
But look back once as you hurry away ; 

For the rock pool now, with the incoming tide, 

Is a part of the ocean deep and wide! 

% 

Vlll 

















I. THE SEA BEACH 


One summer Elinor and Philip went to live 
in a big white house by the seashore. The 
house had a garden around it, and all around 
the garden was a high fence, with bushes and 
flower beds in front of it. 

Elinor was eight years old. She had golden 
hair that curled all over her head and about 
her face. 

Philip was nearly six years old. He had 
straight hair that fell down in straight lines. 
Philip was not so tall as Elinor. His head 
came about up to her shoulder. 

The day after they all went to stay in the 
big white house, Elinor and Philip went to 
play in the garden. It was a lovely garden, 
with trees and rose bushes and bright-colored 
flowers growing all about. There was green 
grass, too, and gravel walks leading in different 
directions. 

The children played for a while, running 
along each one of the paths in turn to see where 


1 


2 


THE GREEN GATE 


it led. Finally they came to a path that led 
straight toward the far end of the garden. 

“ Let's go along this path and see where it 
leads/' said Elinor. "It is wider than the 
others. Perhaps it goes away off somewhere." 

"Oh, perhaps it leads the way to the door 
of the garden! I would like to see what is 
outside," said Philip. 

So they started along the gravel walk. It 
grew prettier and prettier as they got farther 
and farther away. Then, all of a sudden, the 
path ended with a little Green Gate! It was 
so high that Elinor had to stand on tip-toe in 
order to see over. Philip had to climb on the 
bars before he could see over the top. 

"Oh, where do you suppose it leads to?" 
asked Philip. 

"I see a path leading straight ahead, and 
another path leading over toward the right, and 
another path leading over toward the left," 
said Elinor. 

"It looks pretty out there. Let's open the 
gate and see where the paths lead," said Philip, 
jumping down from the gate. 

" Listen !" cried Elinor. " I hear something !" 


THE SEA BEACH 


3 


Philip stood very still and listened. From 
straight ahead he heard a booming sound every 
few minutes. It seemed to come from quite 
near. 

“It sounds like boom! boom! boom!” said 
Philip. 

“Yes,” said Elinor, “and it comes from some¬ 
where along the path that leads straight ahead. 
Now listen again/' 

“I hear a sort of whispering music, like soft 
singing. Why, it sounds like Uncle John play¬ 
ing on the violin/' said Philip. 

"Yes, like an orchestra playing away off 
somewhere. Now listen again. That sound 
came from the left-hand path." 

"Over toward the right I hear a tiny buzzing 
and humming. Oh, away off, ever so far," 
said Philip, half closing his eyes, the better 
to hear. 

Boom! boom! boom! rumble! came from 
the middle path. It sounded much louder 
and nearer than the other sounds. 

"Let's go!" cried Philip again. 

Elinor looked doubtful. 

"We ought to ask Mummy first," she said. 


4 


THE GREEN GATE 


"Oh, she wouldn't mind. Let's go just a 
teeny weeny way!” 

Philip climbed down from the bars and tried 
the latch of the gate. 

"Wait. I am going back to ask Mummy if 
we may go,” said Elinor. 

Philip had been pulling and tugging at the 
latch. But the gate would not open! 

"All right. Let's go and ask her,” he said. 

So the two children started back along the 
gravel walk to find their mother. And there 
she was, coming along toward them! She had 
in one hand a little red pail and shovel, and 
in the other a little blue pail and shovel. She 
handed the red one to Philip and the blue one 
to Elinor. 

"So you waited for me! I am so glad you 
did not want to go along the path without 
asking me,” she said. "You could not have 
unfastened the gate without me, dears.” 

Philip hung his head a little. 

"Which of the three paths did you want to 
take?” she went on. 

"Oh, Mummy! The path on the left made 
a singing sound, like music !” cried Elinor. 


THE SEA BEACH 5 

"And the path on the right sounded like 
soft humming, away, away off !" said Philip. 

"But the path straight ahead?" asked 
Mummy. 

"Oh, from the path straight ahead there 
came a booming sound/' said Elinor. 

"It came from quite near. Oh, can't we go, 
Mummy?" said Philip, holding tight to his 
pail and shovel. 

"Yes, we will take the middle path, dears," 
said Mummy. 

She reached down and unfastened the latch. 
The gate flew wide open! 

The path led uphill for a little distance. 
They could see nothing but the blue sky 
beyond. But in a minute they stood on the 
top of the hill. Then the children gave a great 
shout of delight. For there, below them, was 
a lovely sea beach, covered with white sand. 

Boom! Boom! Splash! 

A big wave came rolling up the beach, burst 
into a mass of sparkling foam and then fell back. 

That was the sound that Elinor and Philip 
had heard from the direction of the middle 
path. 


6 


THE GREEN GATE 


You may imagine how delighted Elinor and 
Philip were. For they had lived far away from 
the ocean and had never seen it before! They 
jumped right up and down. Philip clapped his 
hands, and dropped his pail and shovel on the 
soft, white sand. How hot the sand was, and 
how soft and fine! It was fun to tumble about 
in it. They could hardly wait to take off their 
shoes and stockings, and to have their clothes 
pinned up, before they ran down the beach 
towards the water's edge. It was a long way 
down. The tide was coming up very fast. 

As they came nearer the water the sand grew 
harder and firmer, and darker in color. It was 
damp. They laughed to see their footprints 
in long lines behind them. Then the sand 
suddenly grew soft and very wet. They were 
standing right at the edge of the ocean! 

A big wave came rolling after them. They 
turned and ran away as fast as they could. 
But it was not easy to run in the wet sand. 
Philip stumbled over a stone and fell flat. The 
salt water dashed all over him. His pail and 
shovel went floating backward with the wave. 
But another wave brought them back and 


THE SEA BEACH 


7 


flung them at his feet. Every second or third 
wave seemed to reach a little higher than the 
ones before it. The tide was coming in. 

After the children had played for a while in 
the water they went a little way up the beach. 
Elinor found a stick and began to draw pictures 
on the sand. First of all she drew a picture of 
Daddy. Then she made a picture of Mummy, 
holding on to his hand. Then she made one of 
herself. 

"Make curly hair — awfully curly hair,” said 
Philip, seizing a stick and helping make curls. 

"Oh, but my hair doesn't look like that,” 
said Elinor. 

"Doesn't it?” asked Philip, looking at it 
critically. 

"Never mind,” said Elinor, "I'll make a 
picture of you, now.” 

So she made a picture of Philip. 

This is the way the picture looked: 




8 


THE GREEN GATE 


By and by they sat down on the sand and 
made a fort. First they made a mound of 
sand. They patted it down and rounded it 
off nicely. They stuck a flag on top. The 
flag was a piece of seaweed. Then they hol¬ 
lowed out a trench all around the fort. There 
was an opening in front, with a little bridge 
over it. The bridge was a stick. 

“ Let's make a long trench down to the water/' 
said Elinor. 

But before the trench was half done they 
found it full of water! 

“ Where does the water come from?" asked 
Philip, looking around in surprise. The waves 
did not come up nearly so far as the trench. 

"It's from the ocean. It must be coming 
up underneath. We must have dug down as 
deep as the water level — Oh! ” 

No wonder Elinor cried out, for the water 
came pouring into the trench that surrounded 
the fort. In a moment it was full. Looking 
up, they saw that the tide had come up while 
they had been digging, and there was the ocean 
almost at their feet! Splash! came a wave, and 
dashed all over the fort. 


THE SEA BEACH 


9 


“What makes the tide come up?” asked 
Philip. 

“Why, it has to. It can't help it. Oh, look! 
It is covering up our pictures! And I wanted 
to show them to Mummy!” 

“Take care, children!” called their mother’s 
voice. “The tide is coming up fast. Come, let 
us sit down in the shade under the awning. 
It is nearly time to go home for luncheon. 
Take care, Philip ! There is a strong undertow. 
When the wave draws back see how it drags 
big stones along with it. It might draw you 
back in just the same way, and throw you off 
your feet.” 

“What makes the tide come up so fast, 
Mummy?” asked Elinor, as they sat under the 
shade of the awning, in the soft sand. 

“The water covered up our pictures and our 
fort,” added Philip. 

“The tide has to come up just so far each 
day,” said Mummy. “It is nearly high tide 
now. Do you see that long line of seaweed 
stretching across the beach? That is the high 
water mark. It does not often go higher than 
that except during a storm, or at a very high 


10 


THE GREEN GATE 


tide. See how small the beach is getting. 
A wave will soon touch the seaweed, and then 
you will know that it is high tide. We will 
wait for that, and then go home.” 

Up came a big wave and nearly reached the 
line of seaweed. Then came several smaller 
ones. 

" Count six small waves, and there will soon 
come a big one,” said Mummy. 

So they counted one-two-three-four-five-six! 

Boom! boom ! splash ! came a big wave. 

"What does it do when it is high tide?” 
asked Philip. 

"It goes down again, step by step, just as it 
came up. It is now eleven o'clock. In six 
hours it will be low tide again. At five o'clock 
it will be down by that large white rock there. 
After that it will come back again. That will 
take another six hours.” 

Elinor began to cover Philip up in the sand. 
It was much finer and softer than it was near 
the water. Soon only Philip's head could be 
seen. He looked very funny. 

"Why is the sand so fine and white up here?” 
asked Elinor, sifting it through her fingers. 


THE SEA BEACH 


11 


"What is sand made of, anyway?” asked 
Philip, popping up suddenly, and shaking it 
off in a great shower. 

" Some of it has been ground and ground by the 
waves until it is fine like this. It takes a long 
time. Can you guess what sand is made of ?” 

"Some of it is little fine stones and shells, 
isn't it?" asked Elinor, looking at a handful 
of it. 



A broken shell of a sea snail (Natica). This is the snail that makes 
a round ring or collar of sand to hold its eggs, which are mixed in 
with the sand. 

“Exactly. Look at that rock in the water. 
Each wave that dashes against it breaks off a 
tiny bit, probably. It crumbles off and falls 
on the beach. Then up come the waves and 
roll it back and forth, up and down. It gets 
smaller and smaller and smoother and smoother 


12 


THE GREEN GATE 


as it is flung against other stones and shells. At 
last it is a grain of sand. Of course the softer 
parts of the rock crumble off first, but they may 
take the harder pieces with them. Some of 
these grains are as hard as crystal/' 

“ My! But it must have taken a long time!” 
said Elinor, looking about at the gleaming white¬ 
ness all around them, and thrusting her arm into 
it as far as her little elbow. 

Boom! Splash! 

Crackle-crackle-crackle-swish-swish-swish ! went 
the pebbles as they rolled and tumbled and 
raced backward down the beach after the 
waves, only to be hurled forward again the 
next moment. 

The wave had reached the seaweed. It was 
high tide! 

“Next week there will be a new moon. Then 
we shall have tides that come up very high 
and go out farther. They will do the same at 
the time of full moon. These tides are called 
‘spring tides.' They come twice a month, you 
see." 

“So that is how the pebbles get made into 
sand!" said Elinor, picking up a smooth stone. 


THE SEA BEACH 


13 


“If you had been softer you would have been 
ground into fine sand long ago, wouldn't you, 
little pebble?” 



Two sea snail shells, worn and broken by the waves. The black 
spot in the smaller one is a hole which another snail bored through 
the shell in order to eat the animal inside. 


“Let us carry home some sand and look 
at it through the magnifying glass. Then 
you will see something interesting,” said their 
mother. 

So Philip and Elinor each put a shovelful of 
sand into the pails, and they put in other things, 
too; shells and seaweeds and stones. 

“See my pretty stone!” cried Elinor, hold¬ 
ing up the round pebble that she had picked 
up a little while before. 

“Some people would call that a 'lucky stone,' 


14 


THE GREEN GATE 


for it has a stripe around it. It is a very pretty 
piece of jasper/' said her mother. 

"I am going to keep it always/' said Elinor. 

They left the beach and walked up the plank 
walk, down the hill, through the Green Gate, 
and up the garden walk to the big white house. 

"There is just an hour to luncheon time," 
said their mother. "When you are washed 
and dressed I think I will ask you a few ques¬ 
tions about what you have seen and learned 
this morning. Come, now, and look at our 
sand." 

The children could hardly believe their eyes 
when they looked through the magnifying glass 
at the fine sand that they had brought up from 
the shore. Perfect little shells, no bigger than 
a pinhead! Tiny bits of sparkling crystal, that 
gleamed and shone like precious stones! Bits of 
shell of wonderful colors! Stones too small to be 
seen without the glass, each one a lovely bit 
of color! And all these wonders were contained 
m a spoonful of sand! 

"Now let us sit down and rest for a while 
before luncheon," said their mother. "We 
will look at the sand again another day." 


THE SEA BEACH 


15 


"Won't you please tell us a story now?" 
asked Elinor. 

“Oh, yes, a story, please!" said Philip. 
"Very well, I will tell you a story in verse 
about the Little Green Pebble," said their 
mother. 



What Philip and Elinor saw through the magnifying glass. 



LITTLE GREEN PEBBLE 


Fma little green pebble 
With a white stripe around me; 
So Fm called a lucky stone — 
Aren't you glad you found me ? 
How came I on the sand ? 

Of course I didn't grow there! 

I was part of that great cliff 
In the ocean below there. 

For years and years and years 
I faced the open sea. 

Then came a mighty storm; 

The surf dashed over me; 

The ocean leaped upon me ! 

I felt a fearful shock! 

Up swept a mighty wave 
And tore me from the rock! 

Splash! I dropped into the foam; 
I spun round and round; 

Up I leaped, then down I fell 
And settled on the ground, 


16 


THE SEA BEACH 


17 


With sea urchins and starfish 
And water weeds around me; 

But I did not stay there long; 

The tide came and found me. 

Up it tossed me on the beach ; 
Backward it drew me; 

Up again and down again 
On the sand it threw me. 

My sharp points and edges 
Were worn and ground away; 

Rounder and smoother 
I found myself each day. 

Then came the winter storms; 

Farther I was thrown, 

Up where the sand is soft and fine — 

A shining, polished stone! 

Through sunny days and starry nights, 
With white sand around me, 

I lay and waited till you came — 

Oh, Fm so glad you found me! 


V 



18 


Mr. and Mrs. Tealer Crab ready to dart into their hole if an enemy comes near. 























II. THE CRAB 


“Oh, what a long, long beach!” said Philip 
the next morning as they stepped over the top 
of the sandy bluffs and looked down at the 
ocean. 

“The tide is going out,” said Mummy, look¬ 
ing at her watch. It is about the same time that 
we came yesterday, but the tide turns an hour 
later each day. So it will not start to come in 
until an hour later than it did yesterday. 
Funny, isn't it? But it would take too long 
to tell you why. Look out for it when it turns, 
and don't be taken by surprise when you find 
the waves coming up higher instead of going 
down lower. I am going to sit under the awn¬ 
ing. When you see the big white rock down 
there standing wholly out of water you will 
know that it is 'dead low tide,' as the fisher¬ 
men call it.'' 

“Let's dig holes in the sand, and see if we can 
find some treasure hidden there,” said Philip. 

“Yes, wouldn't it be fun to find a box full of 
diamonds?” said Elinor. 


19 


20 


THE GREEN GATE 


So the two children went down as close to 
the water's edge as they could get and began 
to dig holes in the sand. Funny hopping beach 



fleas jumped up into their faces. There were 
a great many flat speckled shells lying 
about. Some were quite large, others were 
small, only an inch or two long. Some were 
reddish, some brownish, some violet. There 
was a very pretty design on the back of these 
shells. 

“ Those are crab shells. Uncle John has 
some at home in his collection," said Elinor. 

"But there's nothing inside," said Philip, 
turning one over. The shells were empty. 



THE CRAB 21 

“Perhaps if we look around we shall find some 
real live crabs,” said Elinor. 

“I wish I could find one,” said Philip. 



The under side of an empty crab shell; the dark spot or hole shows 
where the crab’s body was. 

He dug deeper and deeper. He shoveled 
the sand to right and left, furiously, stooping 
so low that Elinor could not see his head at all. 
All of a sudden he jumped up and cried “Oh !” 
“What is it?” asked Elinor, looking around. 
But Philip did not answer. He was stoop¬ 
ing over, peering at something in the sand. 
Then he began to run, looking down at an 
object that was scurrying towards the water. 
When he had nearly reached the water's edge 







22 


THE GREEN GATE 


he stooped down quickly and picked up some¬ 
thing. It was a pretty little red crab, and he 
held it by one claw! 



A crab’s claw. The heavy toothed part can move like a thumb to 
help the crab catch its food. 


''Ha! ha! I’ve got you !” he cried. 

But Philip did not hold the crab very long, 
for it caught his finger in one of its claws and 
squeezed it so hard that he shook it off and 
stood holding his finger and screaming with 
pain. The crab went scuttling off and in a 
minute had disappeared into the sea. 

''Oh! Oh! You naughty horrid thing! 
You’ve bitten my finger!” cried Philip. 

Elinor looked at the finger. There was a 
tiny red mark where the crab’s nipper had 
pinched it. 

“Come, we’ll show it to Mummy. It was a 
naughty, naughty crab to bite like that,” said 


THE CRAB 


28 


Elinor. “ Don’t cry. I guess your finger isn't 
hurt much." 

"I wasn't crying!" said Philip, stoutly, 
wiping away a tear. “At least, not much. 
But it hurts awfully." 

“Of course it hurts, dear," said Mummy, 
when she saw the finger with the red mark on 
it. “Crabs' claws can nip very hard. Come, 
we will cover up your finger in cool, wet sand. 
It will soon feel better." 

So Philip put his finger down on the sand 
and they covered it all up. 

“Now it feels better, doesn't it?" asked 
Mummy. 

“Ye-es, a little. But it hurts some. What 
made the crab bite me, Mummy?" 

“What did you do to him?" 

“Why, I just picked him up." 

“ How did you lift him ? By one of his claws ? " 

“Ye-es," answered Philip. 

“Why, of course he nipped you, then. Poor 
little crab, he had to defend himself, didn't 
he? How would you like to have a big giant 
come and lift you off the ground by one finger?" 

“Guess I wouldn't like it." 


24 


THE GREEN GATE 


“If you had not taken him by surprise he 
would probably have snuggled down into the 
sand and hidden out of sight. Then he would 
have drawn his legs up under his shell and kept 
perfectly still. He is quite at home in the sand. 
Or, if he had a chance to run he would have 
scampered into the waves where you could not 
follow him/' 



“He was running into the water when I 
caught him,” said Philip. 

Philip's finger was better now, so they walked 
along the beach, picking up the crab shells that 
lay about. 

“A crab shell is a very lovely thing,” said 



THE CRAB 


25 


Mummy. “See the little round places where 
the eyes come? Are they not well protected 
by the sharp points of the shell? It is jagged 
all around the edge you see. It is like a suit 
of armor. When the baby crab gets big enough 
to have a shell he is still very small. Shells 
do not grow as the little crabs grow, any more 
than your clothes grow when you do. So little 
Mr. Crab sheds his shell, just as you give away 
your old clothes. But he cannot get a new suit 
right away as you can. He has to hide away 
until a new shell grows.” 

“How funny!” cried Philip. 

“At first the new shell is very soft, and is no 
protection at all. But it soon hardens. Then 
out comes Mr. Crab from his hiding place with 
a new suit of armor. By and by that suit, 
too, gets too small and he sheds it and waits 
for another to grow. But once he is full grown, 
he keeps his shell.” 

“I wish we could see another live one,” said 
Elinor. 

Philip hung back a little. 

“Don't be afraid of getting nipped again, 
dear,” said Mummy. “We will treat Mr. 


26 


THE GREEN GATE 


Crab politely this time, won’t we? We will 
not lift him up by one claw. ” 

The tide was coming in very gently, lapping 
up the beach with hardly a ripple. The white 
rock was standing in water. The hole that 
Philip had dug was partly filled with water 
now. Here and there in the sand were funny 
little round holes, breathing holes for some little 
sea creature. Little bubbles of air rose as the 
waves retreated. Underneath the sand where 
each of those bubbles rose, was some living thing, 
a shell animal, perhaps. 

“ Every mark in the sand tells some kind of story, 
if we only knew what it was,” said their mother. 

Soon they came to a little groove of sand. 
Mummy poked it gently aside and out ran a 
crab. It was bigger than the one Philip had 
found. Mummy stooped and picked him up. 
But she held him by the shell, with one finger 
above and her thumb below. His feet waved 
to and fro, but he could not reach her finger 
with the pincers on his front legs. 

“Good morning, Mr. Crab. We are not 
going to hurt you. We would like to look at 
you closely, if you don’t mind.” 


THE CRAB 


27 


“Oh, see his eyes!” cried Elinor. 

“Why, they stick ’way out in front, don't 
they?” asked Philip. 

“Yes, they are on little stalks. That is so 
that he can see around him. He has ten legs, 



you see. The first two are strong claws. The 
next two pairs are the ones that he uses most 
for walking. Now we will put him down and 
watch him run.” 

Mr. Crab was only too glad to run. He 
did not care to be held up and looked at. It 



28 


THE GREEN GATE 


did not hurt any, but it had never happened to 
him before. Off he scampered towards the water 
as though an army of giants were after him. 

“Why, he runs sideways!” cried Philip. 

“Yes, he can run forwards or backwards, or 
almost any way that he chooses. Watch and 
see how some of his feet push the sand back¬ 
wards, and some of them carry him forwards. 
He can run very fast.” 

“He ought to run fast with all those legs,” 
said Philip. 

“I would like to see a baby crab,” said 
Elinor. 



This is a side view of a very 
young baby crab. 



This crab is a little older; this 
top view shows both of his eyes. 


“A baby crab is the oddest-looking little 
creature you ever saw. He has two enormous 
eyes and a long tail. He floats about for a 
little while; then he acts as though he were 


THE CRAB 


29 


flying all to pieces. He is really wriggling out 
of his shell. Then for a short time he looks 
quite like a different creature. Soon after, he 
swims or floats down to the bottom of the water 
and becomes a real crab. He is still very little. 
His shell has to harden before he can go about 
with any comfort or safety.” 

“ Oh ! The white rock is half under water! ” 
cried Philip, suddenly. 

“So it is,” said their mother, looking at her 
watch. “Come, children, it is time to go. Say 
good-by to the ocean and to all the little crabs 
on the beach.” 

Then they all went up the plank walk, down 
the hill, through the 



Green Gate, along the 
garden walk, and into the 
big white house. Soon 
the children were in the 
cool, quiet nursery. 


This small crab, a Pinna crab, 
is sometimes called the oyster 
crab, because it often lives in 
oyster shells. It has no hard 
shell of its own. 


“ Tell us a story, please. 
Mummy,” said Elinor. 


“ What do you want to hear about this time ? ” 
“Oh, about a crab,” cried Philip. 

So she told them the story of Mr. Crab. 



MR. CRAB 

Oh, good morning! Who are you ? My name 
is Mr. Crab. 

Are you friend or are you foe? My claws are 
made to grab. 

I shall seize and pinch your finger if you try 
to push and poke me ! 

I can't stand any nonsense so you'd better not 
provoke me. 

My home is in a rock pool. I can burrow in 
the sand. 

I can paddle through the water or run upon 
the land. 

Just watch me scamper sideways! Look closely 
at my feet! 

Some push me on; some pull me; don't you 
call that very neat? 

When I was young and little, — now what do 
you suppose? 

I outgrew all my shells, just as you outgrow 
your clothes! 


30 


THE CRAB 


31 


I left the old one on the beach as soon as it 
got tight, 

And waited while another grew that fitted me 
just right. 

I shed two coats one summer. But now I've 
reached full size, 

This handsome shell I'll keep. Don't you 
think that I am wise ? 

Sometimes a claw gets broken off. It doesn't 
trouble me; 

I quickly grow another, just as easy as can be! 

My shell's a suit of armor. It keeps me safe 
and sound. 

The only way that you can safely take me from 
the ground 

Is to put your thumb and finger, one above 
and one below, 

And gently lift me up — that's right! Let go, 
now! Let me go! 

Don't ever try to pull my claws! I really 
cannot say 

That I might not lose my temper if you treated 
me that way! 


82 


THE GREEN GATE 


Be sure to look me up again whenever you pass 
by. 

Forgive my hasty words just now. Good-by, 
my friend ! Good-by! 


Shells and starfishes on the rocks at low tide. 


III. THE STARFISH 

For several days it rained hard —so hard that 
the children could not go to the beach. They 
played on the nursery floor with the shells 
that they had found. They played that the 
shells were different kinds of animals. Elinor 
had flocks of sheep and herds of cows. They 
were the little round white and brown shells 
that they had picked up. Philip had some 






34 


THE GREEN GATE 


bigger ones which he said were wild beasts 
that came and tried to carry off Elinor's flocks. 
It was fun playing with the shells, but not so nice 
as being out of doors. 

Then Mummy put the sand that they had 
brought home from the beach on a piece of 
paper and placed it under the glass that made 
things look big. What tiny, tiny shells there 
were! What glistening, lovely-colored bits of 
stone! Some of the little shells were so small 
that you could not know that they were shells 
at all without seeing them through the glass. 
They were such pretty colors, too — red and yel¬ 
low and green and brown. 

At last the sun came shining out brightly. 
Daddy came in at the same moment with a 
present for the children. And what do you 
think it was? A full-rigged ship! You may 
imagine how eager they were then to get down 
to the water and sail that boat. 

“ It is very wet after the rain," said Mummy, 
doubtfully. 

“The sea will not be much wetter, will it?" 
asked Daddy, slyly. 

“No," answered Mummy, laughing, “but 


THE STARFISH 


35 


the grass will. There is not much grass to 
walk in, though. Well, children, you may put 
on your bathing suits, and then you will not be 
afraid of getting wet.” 

So Elinor put on her blue bathing suit, and 
Philip put on his red bathing suit, and they 
went down to Pebbly Beach to launch their 
ship. Elinor carried it under her arm. 

“ I am going out in the motor boat with Daddy 
and Uncle John and Auntie May. Nurse will 
go with you today. Be good children, and do 
just as she tells you,” said Mummy, as she 
kissed them good-by. 

How good it was to get down to the sea again! 
How the waves came dashing and roaring up 
the beach after the storm! Pebbly Beach was 
near the rocks. It was all full of pebbles, some 
quite large, but most of them small. 

“We must be careful or the tide will carry 
our ship out to sea,” said Elinor, looking doubt¬ 
fully at the big waves. 

“Come on, Pm holding the string so it can't 
get away,” said Philip. 

Then Elinor stepped right into the water 
where Philip was, and they launched the boat 


36 


THE GREEN GATE 


on the waves. It bobbed about, then sailed 
rapidly away, bending so far down that the 
sail nearly touched the water. It was great 
fun. 

Away out to sea they could see other sail 
boats, exactly like theirs except that they were 
bigger. There was a fine sailing breeze. They 
could hear the chug! chug! of Daddy's motor 
boat out there somewhere. 

“I wish we could climb aboard our boat and 
sail out to meet them! ” said Philip. “ Wouldn't 
they be surprised?" 

"I guess they would," answered Elinor. 
“Look out! She's going on a rock!" 

Sure enough the boat had gone straight 
on to a rock and had to be lifted off, given a 
good shaking, and launched again. The little 
cove of Pebbly Beach was just the place to sail 
her. 

There were all sorts of funny things lying 
about on the rocks and pebbles. Pretty bits 
of seaweed lay here and there. Some of them 
looked like little ferns, with delicate branches. 
Some of the seaweed looked like green grass, 
some like leaves, and some was snowy white. 


THE STARFISH 


37 


“ Let's tie the boat to a rock and look around 
on the beach/' said Elinor. "I want to carry 
home some of this lovely seaweed to show 
Mummy." 

So they tied the boat to a rock. Elinor 
picked up the prettiest pieces of seaweed that 
she could find and put them carefully into her 
pail. Mr. Crab poked his nose (if you could 
call it a nose) out at them from behind a rock. 
But he evidently knew them for an old friend, 
for he did not seem a bit afraid. 

''Perhaps Mr. Crab has told all his aunts 
and brothers and cousins about us," said Elinor. 

"And so they know we are friends of theirs," 
said Philip. 

There were lovely stones of wonderful colors 
all about. There was seaweed growing on the 
rocks, with funny little brown balloons on it 
that floated on the water and held up the sea¬ 
weed. 

Suddenly Philip cried out, "Oh! I've found 
a star!" 

Elinor ran to see the star. It was the pret¬ 
tiest little red one that you ever saw. It lay 
on a rock near the water. 


38 


THE GREEN GATE 


“Is it really a star? Could it have fallen 
down?” asked Philip. 

“No, of course not. Not really a star out of 
the sky. I wonder if it is alive.” 



the middle of the starfish is a water sieve which strains all the 
water as it goes to the tube feet. 

Philip touched it with his finger. It moved 
just a little, but seemed quite content to lie 
where it was. 


THE STARFISH 


39 


“ Oh, here’s another one! But this one is 
bigger, and it is bluer than that one! ” cried 
Philip, with his head behind a rock. 



The under side of a starfish, showing the tube feet all along the 
middle of each arm. 

“And here's another, and another! Oh, there 
are lots of them in the pools! ” cried Elinor. 
Sure enough, there were dozens of them, 


40 


THE GREEN GATE 


spread out on the rocks in the sun; or lying 
in the pools that the tide had left. They were 
in such funny positions — not at all comfortable, 
the children thought. 

As the cold water came flowing into the pools 
with the rising tide there was a slight movement 
among the starfishes. One moved his arms 
ever so little. Then he began to stretch them 
out. Then he slowly, without any effort it 
seemed, moved forward in the water and glided 
to a new position. It was such fun to watch 
them! All of them had five pointed arms, 
like stars with five points. Their backs were 
covered with small bristly points. Underneath 
they were light, almost white, with little pointed 
humps running in two lines down their arms. 
At least, that is the way the children described 
them. 

“See this cunning little baby one! He is 
moving!” cried Philip. 

The little starfish put two feet forward slowly, 
then pushed himself along gently with the three 
others. In this way he came to the edge of a 
pool. He moved slowly along, then dropped 
down to a remote corner, where he clung so 


THE STARFISH 


41 


tightly to the rock that Philip and Elinor could 
not pull him off, though they tried to do so, with¬ 
out hurting him. How could such a little crea¬ 
ture hold so firmly ? 

Chug! chug! chug! came the sound of a 
motor boat quite near shore. 

"Why, that must be Daddy and Mummy 
and Uncle John and Auntie May in the motor 
boat!” cried Elinor, running up to the top of 
a rock to see. 

"Hello ! Hello !” called a voice from the boat. 

The children waved their hands and called back. 

"Come, children,” said Nurse, who suddenly 
appeared from a warm corner where she had 
been sitting near by. "Your father and mother 
have come back. It is time to go home. But 
where is your boat?” 

The boat! Where was the boat, indeed? 
The children stood staring at the rock to which 
they had tied it. Water covered the rock! 

“Oh, dear! Oh, dear! She's lost!” cried 
Elinor, bursting into tears. 

"Our boat! And we wanted to sa-sail out 
to meet them !” cried Philip. 

"What is the matter?” called a voice from 


42 


THE GREEN GATE 


the motor boat. “What are you children 
crying about?'' 

“We've lo-ost our bo-boat!" cried Elinor. 

“No, you haven't! Cheer up, kiddies!" 
called Uncle John. 

“Poor little dears! She's safe! Don't 
worry !" came Auntie May's voice. 

“We caught her!" cried Mummy's voice. 

“Here is the boat!" cried Daddy's voice. 

Daddy was holding something up to show 
them. It was the boat, safe and sound. It 
had done just what Philip wanted it to do. It 
had sailed out to meet the motor boat. 

Then Elinor and Philip laughed, and clapped 
their hands. They were so glad to have their 
boat safe, after all. 

“But I wish we'd been in it," sighed Philip. 

All together they went up the plank walk, down 
the hill, through the Green Gate, along the 
garden walk, and into the big white house. 

Everyone laughed and talked and told over 
again the story of how the boat came sailing 
out to meet Daddy and Mummy and Uncle 
John and Auntie May. And Elinor and Philip 
hugged the boat, they were so glad to see it 


THE STARFISH 


43 


again. Then they took their treasures out of 
their pails and showed them to their mother. 
Elinor's mosses were in a great bunch, all 
covered with sand. 

“Oh, my pretty seaweed!" she cried, in 
dismay. “It looked so pretty when I got it, 
but it is all mixed up with sand now." 

“Never mind, dear. Let us put it in a dish 
of water," said Mummy. 

So they put it in a dish of water, and it floated 
out, as pretty as ever. 

Then Philip showed Mummy a starfish that 
he had found, all dried up, on the beach. It 
had a thick, tough skin, with small prickles 
on it. 

“ Oh, a starfish!" exclaimed Mummy. “ What 
a pretty one! See, it has five arms, like rays, 
coming from a center in different directions. 
It is sometimes called a radiate — and that 
name describes its pattern very well." 

“Is starfish really its name?" asked Philip. 

“Yes, you see, it looks like a star, doesn't it? 
Now, what do you think? If one of these arms 
gets broken off, a new one grows out! Do you see 
that one of the arms of this starfish is shorter 


44 


THE GREEN GATE 


than the others? That is a new arm that is 
growing in place of one that got broken off. 



A brittle star with broken arms. These starfishes are shy and hard 
to find, as they like deep water. When alarmed, they throw off 
pieces of their arms. 

"Sometimes the little starfish gets broken 
quite badly, and loses several arms. But they 
all grow again. There is one kind of starfish 
called a 'brittle star’ that can drop his arms 


THE STARFISH 45 

off if anything has hold of them. Then he swims 
away and grows new ones/' 

“Think of that!” said Elinor. 

“ Think of what a tiny living creature like 
this can do to save itself. Look at his back 
now, through the glass. There are several 
different kinds of spines. On the end of each 
arm is an eye! Such a tiny red one! And 
there is also a tube foot that seems to smell 
and to feel. The mouth is in the center, under¬ 
neath. The starfish is very fond of oysters. 
It seems odd to think of a starfish eating oys¬ 
ters, doesn't it? Some of the starfish's tiny 
spines seem to act as comb and brush and 
keep the little creature clean. The others help 
him to move about. The little tube feet can 
attach themselves to a rock and hold on so 
tightly that you cannot draw the starfish away. 
Moving out and in the tube feet help him to 
glide along. Aren't they wonderful little 
creatures ? ” 

That night, before Elinor and Philip went 
to sleep, they asked for a story-poem. 

“ About a starfish, Mummy !” they cried. 

So she told them the poem about the Starfish. 


STARFISH 


Little Asteria, 

Five-pointed star, 

Could you have fallen from 
Heaven so far ? 

Long time the waters deep 
Hid you from sight ; 

Now the out-flowing tide 
Brings you to light. 

Thousands of starfishes 
Crimson and blue, 

Orange and violet, 

Lie here with you. 

Stretched on the slippery sands, 
Warm in the sun, 

Living and breathing 
Like you, every one. 

See, she is moving now; 

Two pointed toes 
Forward, the other three 
Drag as she goes. 


46 


THE STARFISH 


47 


Now she has found a bed; 
Settled to stay; 

Clinging so fast you can't 
Pull her away. 

Little Asteria, 

Shine where you are, 

Up toward the skies above, 
Pretty Sea Star! 



48 


A horseshoe crab, showing its big round shell and its long stiff tail. Real crabs have no tails. 










































































IV. THE HORSESHOE CRAB 


Elinor was having a wonderful time arrang¬ 
ing the seaweed that she had found on the 
beach. Mummy had placed a dish of clear 
water on the table beside the dish in which the 
seaweeds floated. Then she had cut some 
squares and oblongs of white paper and laid 
them in a pile beside the dish of water. Then 
she found two large pins. One she gave tp 
Elinor, and the other she took herself. 

“I will mount the first piece of seaweed, and 
you may watch me and see just how it is done. 
You may do the second piece.” 

She separated a small piece of seaweed from 
the others and put it in the dish of clear water, 
where it floated around and spread out its 
branches. It began to look like itself now that 
it had plenty of room to be seen. Mummy gave 
it a gentle touch now and then until it was spread 
out so that all its branches showed. Then she 
quickly slipped one of the pieces of paper under¬ 
neath it. It clung, dripping, to the paper as 


49 


50 


THE GREEN GATE 


she lifted it out of the water. She laid it 
on the table and, taking her pin, began 
to separate the branches on the paper, until 



the seaweed lay flat just as it had done on 
the water. She worked very deftly. Each 
tiny branch was touched lightly, and moved 
ever so little until it lay in its proper place. 





THE HORSESHOE CRAB 


51 


"Oh, how pretty! How pretty!" exclaimed 
Elinor. " But what makes it stick to the paper ? 
Won't it fall right off?" 

"No, there is a good deal of sticky stuff in 
seaweed. It will not fall off, even after it is 
dry. I have some that I have kept for years. 
It is just as pretty as when I mounted it. Now, 
would you like to try one?" 

“Oh, yes. But I'm afraid I shall spoil it," 
said Elinor. 

"You may have to try for a while before you 
can make a good one. It takes patience, and 
you must work carefully and gently. The little 
branches are fragile and will break easily if 
you are not careful. But you will get the knack 
of it after a while. Here is a pretty little piece. 
Try this." 

At first the seaweed floated in every direction 
but the right one. The paper bent and wrinkled. 
It was a fussy job, and Elinor was almost in 
tears. But a touch here and there from 
Mummy's deft fingers set things straight. Be¬ 
fore long things went better. It was great fun 
to see the tiny branches spread out into a lovely 
tree-shaped design. Elinor was very proud of 


52 


THE GREEN GATE 


her first successful attempt, which was with a 
piece of delicate red seaweed. When it was 
mounted Elinor clapped her hands and shrieked 
with delight. 



This is the seaweed that Elinor mounted. 


“Next winter you will be glad that you made 
these/' said her mother. “They will make very 
nice cards to give away to your friends/' 

“ Oh, I love to do it! I am glad I got so 
many of them, And— just think! — I did not 



THE HORSESHOE CRAB 53 

know what I was going to do with them when I 
brought them home!” 

So Elinor worked away. Each piece she made 
was prettier than the last. No two of them were 
in the least alike. 

In the meantime Philip had grown tired of 
watching them. He had tried to mount a piece 
of seaweed that his mother gave him, but his 
fingers seemed to be all thumbs. The paper 
tore, the branches got tangled and broke all to 
pieces. He threw it aside in disgust and went 
to the window. It was raining hard. He 
went to the nursery. Nurse had been given a 
morning off, and he was quite by himself. His 
wooden horse stood in the comer looking lone¬ 
some, too. 

Suddenly a ray of sunshine came peeping 
out of a cloud, smiled at him, and decided to 
keep on shining. It was clearing off! What 
a shame to stay indoors when the sun was shin¬ 
ing ! His horse needed exercise, too. Why 
not take him to walk in the garden ? 

In five minutes more Philip had stolen softly 
out of doors, and, holding his horse by the 
bridle, was walking down the path towards 


54 


THE GREEN GATE 


the Green Gate. And when he reached the 
Gate he found that someone had left it open! 

Now Philip had not thought of going through 
the Gate, but when he found it open his horse 
reared and plunged and galloped right through 
the open Gate, up the hill, down the plank 
walk, and straight out to the beach! Down 
they galloped until they came to the very edge 
of the water. 

There was no time to take off shoes and stock¬ 
ings. Philip's white boots sank into the soft, 
wet sand. But the horse was on wheels and 
did not seem to mind it at all. He reared and 
pranced about. It was all Philip could do to 
hold him in. 

An idea came to Philip. Why not give the 
horse a bath ? He needed it badly. Here was 
a fine chance. A wave came dancing up, but 
ran back before he could lead the horse in. Be¬ 
sides, it was rather scary going near those big, 
curling waves. Up came another. This time, 
holding fast to the horse's bridle, Philip plunged 
him straight at the roaring wave. 

Now the horse did not like this at all. The 
water was very cold. He was not used to salt 


THE HORSESHOE CRAB 


55 


water baths, or any other kind, for that matter. 
A long piece of seaweed got caught in one of 
his legs. Philip stumbled over this, and, be¬ 
fore he could get to his feet, the next wave sent 
them both sprawling, drenched from head to 
foot with icy water. 

With a great effort the horse and his master 
got to their feet and went back, away from the 
waves. They shook themselves and the water 
dripped from the horse's mane and tail, and 
from Philip's hair and from his white suit. 

Just at that moment Philip spied something 
on the sand that was different from anything 
he had seen before. It was more like a crab 
than anything, but it was larger, and was shaped 
something like a horseshoe. It had a tail, and 
was covered with a shell of a brownish color. 
It was not alive, but had lain on the beach for 
some time in the sun, and was quite dry, except 
where the wet sand had clung to it. 

What could it be ? 

Philip examined it cautiously. He did not 
want to be nipped again, and this creature had 
long legs; not so long as a crab's, but with 
nippers on the ends. He could see them when 


56 


THE GREEN GATE 


he turned it over. It did not move. Then he 
lifted it by its sharp, pointed tail and looked 
at it. On its under side its legs were curled up. 
There were five legs on each side. Yes, it was 
something like a crab, but how different! He 
decided to take it home and show it to Mummy. 

The sea gulls were flying overhead with shrill 
cries. Away out in the water a flock of them 
was following a fisherman’s boat, ready to 
pounce on any scrap of food that he threw over¬ 
board. How pretty the little boat looked in the 
bright sunshine with the gray and white birds 
surrounding it! There was not a person on the 
beach. It seemed a little lonesome. Philip 
had been so eager to take his horse down to 
the water that he had not thought of that be¬ 
fore. He began to feel cold and wet. The 
water was running around inside his boots 
in a horrid way. He was dripping all over. 
And — what had happened to his horse ? The 
color was all coming off in streaks and spots. 
Salt water is not good for a horse’s complexion; 
that is, if he is made of painted wood. 

So Philip decided to go back. Up he went, 
dragging the horse through the soft, deep sand, 


THE HORSESHOE CRAB 


57 


which stuck to his boots and stockings. The 
horse kept stumbling and falling, and was soon 
a mass of sand, and so heavy that his master 
could hardly drag him. Once the weight pulled 
him over, and they both fell heavily down. 
Philip bumped his head on a rock and the sand 
went down the back of his neck and into his 
nose and eyes. It was a sorry-looking pair that 
stumbled up the plank walk, down the hill, 
through the Green Gate, along the garden walk, 
and into the big white house. 

But, held fast in Philip's fist, was the funny 
thing that he had found on the beach! 

What a commotion there was when the two 
appeared at the door! Everyone had been 
looking for them ever since Nurse came home 
and found that Philip was not in the nursery. 
No one had thought that they would go out into 
the garden, and through the Green Gate to the 
beach. 

“ Why, Philip! My dear child ! Where have 
you been?" 

“Oh, he's all covered with sand! And look 
at his horse! The color is all coming off in 
streaks!" 


58 


THE GREEN GATE 


“Look at your white suit! And at your 
boots! Why, you are soaked through, child! 
Come, and I will put you right to bed.” 

“Wait, Mummy,” said Philip. 



The under side of a horseshoe crab, showing its legs and mouth. 

He held out his treasure. 

“See what I found on the beach!” he cried. 
“Well, you have found a horseshoe crab. 







THE HORSESHOE CRAB 


59 


There are not many of them on our beach. 
That is quite a good find, dear. It looks like a 
horseshoe, you see. The horseshoe crab is not 
a crab, really, though it looks like one. It lives 
on the sandy shore, and burrows underneath 
the sand with its rounded head. It has two 
pairs of eyes. The first pair you see here, in 
front. They are well protected with a thick, 
hard skin. The second pair are very tiny. 
They are in the center of the shell. He is an 
odd-looking thing, isn't he? Well, dear, you 
have a new thing to add to your collection, 
haven't you? But you shouldn't have gone to 
the beach alone. You knew that, didn't you ?" 

“Yes, Mummy. I won't go again. But — 
well, it cleared off. And I was lonesome, and 
the horse needed a bath. But I didn't mean to 
go to the beach until I found the Green Gate 
open. Then I just thought I had to go." 

“I guess your horse is sorry that he went," 
said Mummy. “He will never be so good- 
looking as he was before he took a bath. And 
your suit! And your shoes! But I am glad 
that you came back safe and sound. And you 
will never, never do such a thing again." 


60 


THE GREEN GATE 


When Philip was warm and dry, he and 
Elinor went out on the piazza and asked their 
mother to tell them a story. 

“Well,” said Mummy, “I will tell you the 
story-poem of the Horseshoe Crab, which is 
not a crab, really, and of others which are real 
crabs.” 



These sea snails are sometimes called periwinkles. 


THE HORSESHOE CRAB 


Good day, my friends! My name, you ask? 
Well, I am what you call 

A Horseshoe Crab; but wise men say Fm not 
a crab at all. 

Fm something like a horseshoe with a funny, 
pointed tail, 

All covered over with a shell, just like a coat 
of mail. 

Fve six or seven pairs of legs that walk along 
the land, 

And others that I swim with. I can bore into 
the sand; 

My rounded head I push and push until Fve 
made a hole, 

And there I am all covered up, as cosy as a mole. 

There are many kinds of real crabs living every¬ 
where. 

A great big splendid family: and some are 
very rare. 

There's dear little Lady Crab, no bigger than 
your hand; 


61 


62 


THE GREEN GATE 


Her shell is white with purple rings; she bur¬ 
rows in the sand. 

There's Green Swimming Crab; he's a wild, 
reckless fellow; 

His forelegs are like paddles; he is spotted 
with bright yellow. 

And Fiddler Crab whose claws are like a fiddle 
and a bow; 

H^ makes a deep hole in the sand to hide him 
from his foe. 

He scrapes up little bits of sand and forms 
them into balls, 

And brings them back beneath his feet, then 
builds them into walls; 

And so he makes a lookout-house above his 
hole, outside, 

Where he stands on tip-toe watching, or can 
scuttle in to hide. 

There's clever Spider Crab, too. When he 
wants to hide away, 

He puts a bunch of seaweed on his back, and 
there 'twill stay; 

It grows tall and long and branching; if 
you searched with all your might 


THE HORSESHOE CRAB 


63 


You would not know a little crab was hidden 
out of sight. 

Chillippa, the Box Crab, can fold her legs up 
tight. 

You'd never guess she was a crab; she's quite 
concealed from sight ; 

Safe cuddled in her box of shells, she closes up 
her door, 

And bobbing lightly on the waves, is carried 
to the shore. 

And tiny Pinna Crab, so pink and soft and 
small; 

He lives within an oyster shell. He's smallest 
of them all. 

There's more that I could tell you, but I really 
mustn't stay; 

Good-by, my friends! I'll leave the rest until 
another day! 



Seaweed and starfishes on the rocks at low tide. Some of the star¬ 
fishes are very limp, and may soon drop into the water. 


V. THE SEA URCHIN 

“What do you suppose we'll find today?" 
asked Philip, as he and Elinor scampered down 
the garden walk towards the Green Gate. 

“Oh, I wonder what it will be!" answered 


64 










THE SEA URCHIN 


65 


Elinor. "We always find something new, don't 
we?" 

"Yes, perhaps it'll be a big sea serpent, like 
the one Uncle John was telling us about yester¬ 
day," said Philip. 

"Or a whale or a shark or something like 
that," added Elinor. 

"I'd like to find a whale," said Philip. 
"Wouldn't it be fun to show it to Mummy and 
Daddy and Uncle John and Auntie May?" 

"Dear me!" cried Auntie May, who went 
with the children that morning instead of their 
mother. "What do you think you would do 
if you saw a big whale coming towards shore?" 

"I'd go and catch it!" cried Philip stoutly. 

Auntie May laughed. 

"Do you know how big a whale is?" she 
asked. "Why it would be as big as from here 
to those cliffs over by Pebbly Beach. In the 
first place it would not be able to get very near 
the land, because it is so big that it has to swim 
in deep water, just as big boats need deeper 
water to sail in than small ones do. As for 
catching it, Philip! Why, you would run 
and hide." 


66 


THE GREEN GATE 


"I don't think I'd be afraid/' said Philip. 

“It would be nice to add a whale to our col¬ 
lection," said Elinor. “But there wouldn't be 
room for him. We should have to find a new 
place to keep our collection then." 



“Just think of the things that we have al¬ 
ready," said Philip. “A piece of green stone, 
— jasper — and some red jasper, and some 
crabs —" 

“And a starfish —" added Elinor. 

“And a horseshoe crab —" said Philip. 

“And some mounted seaweeds—" said 
Elinor. 

“And shells and sand, and lots of other 
things," said Philip. 


THE SEA URCHIN 


67 


“ There must have been a storm at sea,” 
said Auntie May. “See all the driftwood 
lying on the beach. And what a lot of kelp has 
been torn up by the roots and thrown ashore!” 

“What is kelp?” asked Philip. 

“Kelp is the long seaweed that grows in deep 
water, with its roots on the bottom of the ocean. 
See, there is a lot of it here.” 

Philip seized a long piece and dragged it after 
him by the hollow stem, which was as big around 
as two of his fingers. The end was leaf-shaped 
and about two feet long. 

There were all kinds of things thrown up by 
the waves; pieces of broken spars, lobster buoys 
that had been separated from the ropes that tied 
them, planks, pieces of cork floats, bits of tarred 
rope and driftwood; all scattered from one end 
of the beach to the other. 

The children ran about gathering heaps of 
curious things and piling them up. 

“We might build a fire of driftwood,” said 
Auntie May. “There is plenty of wood to 
burn, but I have no matches. Besides, the 
wind is blowing toward the land. It would 
not be safe.” 


68 


THE GREEN GATE 


“Why not? Oh, can't we build a fire?" 
cried the children. 

“We must wait until another day for that. 
We cannot take risks with fires. Run and play 
a while, dears, and I will sit down in the shade." 

The tide was very low. The big white rock 
was standing out of water. Elinor ran and stood 
upon it. It was fun to watch the tide come 
stealing gently back, pretending not to come 
after them, but slowly and surely making its 
way up the beach again. Before they knew it 
the big stone was standing in water. A mist 
came creeping over the ocean. First the hori¬ 
zon line, where the water seemed to end, was 
hidden. Then they could no longer see the 
islands out to sea. Then the great cliff to the 
right of them was hidden in a thin veil of fog. 
The air felt cooler. 

“Let's each dig a well and see which one can 
dig the deeper one," said Elinor. 

“Yes, and see which well will get filled up 
with water first," added Philip. 

So they ran up the beach and began to dig 
as fast as they could. Down, down, deeper 
and deeper went their shovels. By and by they 


THE SEA URCHIN 


69 


used their arms and hands, scooping up great 
lumps of dripping sand and heaping it on each 
side of their wells. The tide came creeping up 
gently, but the wells were not filled yet. 

"You can't catch us, Old Ocean!" cried 
Philip. 

But he looked up a little fearfully. It was a 
bit scary to see it creeping so near. 

"Let's see how long we can stay," said Elinor. 

"Yes," said Philip. 

Lap! lap! swish! came a sound behind him. 
The water was creeping up. 

"I'll stay as long as you do," said Elinor. 

"All r-right," said Philip. 

Swish! swish-sh! came a wave and filled the 
wells to the brim! 

Elinor jumped up and looked around. Then 
she gave a little cry. 

"Oh! What is it?" cried Philip, jumping 
up and looking around, too. 

The two children were on a little rise of sand 
that was quite a bit higher than the beach 
around them. The tide had come softly around 
this mound, and there they were on an island, 
with rippling water all about where they stood ! 


70 


THE GREEN GATE 


The fog was thick now, and they could hardly 
see in what direction they were looking. The 
fog covered the ocean like a thick, soft blanket 
of white wool. 

The two children screamed aloud at the top 
of their voices. "Oh, Auntie May! Auntie 
Ma-ay! Oh, Mummy! Mummy!’’ 

“Here I am, dears! Oh, where are you?” 
came a voice from out of the fog. 

“Here! Here! Oh, hurry!” 

The children could not say where they were 
because they did not really know. 

“I’m coming! Oh! Why, you are all sur¬ 
rounded !” cried Auntie May. 

They could see her now, standing quite near, 
beyond the rippling waves. 

With one bound the children dashed toward 
her. But the water splashed about as they 
jumped into it. In they went up to their knees. 

“Wait a minute! I’m coming!” cried 
Auntie May. 

She waded in from her side, made her way 
across, seized a hand of each of the children, 
and in two minutes more all three stood on dry 
land. 


THE SEA URCHIN 


71 


“ Well! well! well! That was a close shave/' 
said Auntie May. “How did you come to stay 
so long in that place when the tide was com¬ 
ing in?" 

“We wanted to see how long we could stay," 
said Philip. 

“And the fog was so thick that we didn't 
see that the water was coming all around us," 
said Elinor. 

“These fogs come in so quickly," said Auntie 
May, “that the fishermen are more afraid of 
them than of storms, even. Without a com¬ 
pass, how could a man in a boat find his 
way? Just think! I fell asleep on the rock 
and did not wake up until I heard you call¬ 
ing me!" 

“It was a narrow escape, wasn't it, Auntie 
May?" asked Elinor. 

“It was a very narrow escape. Why, the 
water has covered the place where you were 
by this time. Don't ever take risks with the 
tide. It will get the best of you if you don't 
look out. How could I have fallen asleep!" 

“What is a compass, Auntie May?" asked 
Philip. 


72 


THE GREEN GATE 


“Oh, a compass is a little instrument that 
points to the north. If a sailor knows which 
direction is north he can usually find his way 
home," said Auntie May. “That is, unless 
the wind blows him out to sea, or the waves 
carry him on to the rocks. He has to keep a 
sharp lookout for winds and tides." 

“We didn't find any whales!" said Philip. 

“Nor any sea serpents," said Elinor. 

“Aren't we going to find something?" asked 
Philip, disappointedly. 

“ Hello! Here's something!" cried Elinor. 



Dead sea urchin shell, with all the spines broken off. This shell is 
an old worn shell and does not show the pretty pattern as well as 
the next two pictures do. 

She picked up a round greenish object that 
looked a little like a shell. It had small lumps 
on it running up and down in lines. There 
was a round hole on the under side. 


THE SEA URCHIN 


73 


“That is a sea urchin/' said Auntie May. 
“ It is first cousin to the starfish. It is a radiate. 
That is, it has rays coming from a center. Sup¬ 
pose you took a starfish and bent up its arms 
and fastened them together at the top so as to 
form a ball, it would look something like a sea 
urchin, would it not?" 

“Why, so it would," said Elinor, looking 
at it closely. 

“It has tiny knobs all over it," said Philip. 



A sea urchin with some of the spines broken off, and showing where 
they were fastened to the shell. 

“That is where the spines grow. When 
sea urchins are alive they are all covered with 
spines. This is an empty shell, you see. Oh, 
Philip has found one with spines on it!” 

Philip had picked up another empty shell, 


74 


THE GREEN GATE 


but this one was covered with short, bristly 
brown spines that pointed in every direction. 

“His spines are a very good protection. See 
how sharp they are. They help him to walk 
along the ground. He can go in any direction. 
There are three kinds. The long ones stick 
into anything that tries to hurt him. The 
smaller ones act as little brushes and combs, 
and keep him clean. Others open and shut 
their forks, which are almost too small to be 
seen, and reach all about. They can untangle 
and throw aside any bits of seaweed that get 
caught on his body. Sometimes they reach 
up and around and pick up bits of seaweed, 
which they place on him as if to hide him from 
sight. The third set of spines helps him to 
see and to hear; or, at least, to know what is 
going on around him. He has specks of eyes, 
too.” 

“What is this hole? Is it his mouth?” 
asked Philip, turning the sea urchin over. 

“Yes, that is his mouth. The live sea urchin 
has five long teeth which project over the mouth. 
There are ten little feelers around it. And its 
tube feet are the most wonderful things! There 


THE SEA URCHIN 


75 


are a great many of them. They can extend 
far out beyond the ends of the spines. They 
enable him to cling tightly, just as the star¬ 
fishes do, and with them he can creep or roll 
his body over. They are lazy fellows, these 
sea urchins. They are not so fond of moving 
about as their cousins, the starfishes, and are 
content to live idly in one spot, covered with 
seaweeds or stones. They grind out holes in 



A sea urchin with part of the spines broken off. Notice the tube 
feet which can reach out past the spines. 

the rock with those little teeth of theirs, and 
stay in the hole, quite safe. Often they grow 
bigger than the hole entrance and cannot get 
out. But they do not much care. They are 


76 


THE GREEN GATE 


happy and contented. Sea urchins are vege¬ 
tarians; that is, they prefer vegetable food.” 

“How can they bite the hard rock, I wonder, 
with those little teeth?” asked Elinor, look¬ 
ing closely at the one with spines that showed 
the teeth on the under side. 



A sea urchin shell broken so as to show the bony part in the middle. 
This bony part can be more easily seen in the next picture. 


“They turn round and round until they have 
ground away an opening. Isn't it wonderful 
to think of ? Some sea urchins are green, 
some are almost black in color.” 

“And just think! We've got another speci¬ 
men for our collection,” said Philip. 

“We'll take it home to show to Mummy. 
There are two specimens, really, aren't there? 
One with spines, and a dead one without 
spines!” said Elinor. 




THE SEA URCHIN 


77 


“It is high time to be going,” said Auntie 
May. “My shoes are full of salt water. You 
do not mind if your feet are wet, for you have no 
shoes or stockings on. But I waded in after you, 
remember. Come, children! ” 



This is Aristotle’s lantern, the bony part inside of a sea urchin. 
The five pointed teeth are at the bottom; four of them show here. 

The fog was getting so thick that the children 
could see only a tiny strip of beach when they 
looked back. The ocean had disappeared en¬ 
tirely. They could easily have lost their way 
in coming up the beach. 

“How pleased Mummy will be when she sees 
our new specimen!” cried Elinor, peeping into 
her blue pail where lay the round, knobby sea 
urchin. 






78 


THE GREEN GATE 


“Won't she!” cried Philip, peeping into his 
red pail, where lay the bristly, greenish-brown 
sea urchin. 

Then they went up the plank walk, down the 
hill, through the Green Gate, and up the garden 
walk, and into the big white house. 

Their mother was delighted when she saw 
the two new specimens. But she was surprised 
when she heard of their narrow escape on the 
sands. 

“ You must never, never do such a thing again! 
Think what might have happened if you had 
waited a few minutes longer!” she said. 

“Now tell us a story-poem, Mummy dear,” 
said Elinor. 

“About a sea urchin, please,” said Philip. 

So then their mother told them the story- 
poem about the Sea Urchin. 


SEA URCHIN 


Close to the waves, on a little rock shelf, 

Lives a prickly green Sea Urchin all by himself. 

On the same rocky cliff there are thousands of 
others 

Grouped closely together, his sisters and 
brothers. 

Round and round, bit by bit, with their sharp 
little teeth 

They have gnawed themselves holes in the rock 
ledge beneath: 

And sometimes an urchin who's grown big and 
stout 

Finds his hole is so small that he cannot get out! 

But he's lazy and sleepy and really likes best 

To bask and to doze in his warm, cosy nest. 

He can reach up and pull off the seaweed behind 
him 

And cover himself so you never would find him. 

His sharp, prickly spines are a splendid 
protection; 


79 


80 


THE GREEN GATE 


Some brush, scour, and scrape him off quite to 
perfection; 

Some help him to feel and to hear and to see; 
He's as neat and complete as an urchin need be. 

His tiny tube feet are so supple and strong 
That, slowly but surely, they bear him along, 
When he wants to go walking down into a pool, 
Where the shadows are green and the water 
is cool. 







. 











■ • 








. 








. 


































■ 

















■ 

































82 


Shells and starfishes left on the rocks as the tide goes down. 





























VI. SHELLS 


Patter! patter! patter! came the rain on 
the window panes. Splash! splash! splash! 
went rivers of water down the gutters and into 
the big cistern behind the house. Little brooks 
ran in every direction along the gravel walks. 
The trees bent and swayed in the wind which 
went moaning and roaring through the woods. 
Leaves were torn from the branches and went 
fluttering here and there. It was a fearful 
storm! 



Two empty shells. 


Daddy stood looking out of the Sea Room 
window. The children stood beside him. 

“I am glad I am not on the water today,” 
he said. “Last night must have been a bad 




84 


THE GREEN GATE 


one for ships. The storm came on quite sud¬ 
denly, about midnight. It is still raging. We 
shall have some surf on the beach after this.” 

“Oh, can't we go out and see it, Daddy?” 
cried the children, both at once. 

“We've never been out on the beach in a real 
storm, you know,” added Elinor. 

“We'd like to see the big, big waves. Won't 
you take us, Daddy?” pleaded Philip. 

“Well! well! You are real little sea dogs, 
aren't you?” said their father. “We will see. 
By and by, if the wind goes down a bit, you 
may come with me for a walk along the beach.” 

Then the breakfast bell rang. The children 
could hardly wait until the meal was over, they 
were so eager to go out and see the storm. 

“Oh, Daddy, the wind's gone down a lot!” 
cried Philip, with his nose to the window pane. 

“Yes, there won't be any storm left if we don't 
go soon, Daddy,” said Elinor. 

“ I guess there will be all the storm you want, 
kiddies,” said their father, laughing, as he 
looked out of the window. “Listen! I can 
hear the roar of the surf on the shore, even 
from here. An hour from now will be time 


SHELLS 


85 


enough to go. It will be a spring tide and a 
storm at the same time. You will see a fine 
show!” 

An hour later three figures stood at the door 
of the big white house, then started down the 
steps and out into the rain. They were all 
dressed from head to foot in rubber water¬ 
proofs, rubber hats and rubber boots. They 
did not need umbrellas. Besides, an umbrella 
would have gone inside out in half a minute, 
the wind was blowing so hard. 

Mummy, watching from the window, waved 
her hand to them as they made their way down 
the garden walk, and disappeared in the direc¬ 
tion of the Green Gate. 

Clinging fast to their father's hands, the two 
children went up the path and stood upon the top 
of the sand hills looking at the beach. When 
they first caught sight of it they stood still for 
a moment in surprise. Then both children 
screamed aloud. But their voices were drowned 
in the roaring of the waves and the shrieking 
of the wind, which would have lifted them off 
their feet if they had not held to their father's 
hands. 


86 


THE GREEN GATE 


It was a storm indeed! The tide was not 
only high, but unusually high. The waves came 
booming and roaring over the upper part of 
the beach, far above the high tide mark. All 
about was frothy white foam, and wave after 
wave came rushing and tumbling in great green 
rollers, hurled itself against the land, and burst 
into spray. The children could feel it on their 
faces. 



An old mussel shell. The curved lines are the lines of growth, and 
show how mussel shells gradually grow larger and larger. 


“See where the water has broken through 
the sand dunes, and is flowing down on to the 
marshes, and over the road !” cried their father. 

“Oh! oh! oh!” cried Philip and Elinor. 
They were too astonished to say anything more. 

“That is the way the sea gains a footing on 
the land,” went on their father. “Those sand 
dunes, with the marsh grass growing high on 




SHELLS 


87 


their tops, and with the tough grass-roots 
matted together in a solid mass, make a fine 
defense against the sea in ordinary weather, 
but a storm like this breaks all barriers. You 
see, now that one wave has made a hole through, 
the next comes tearing after it and pours down 
on the road be¬ 



yond, carrying 
sand with it. That 
gradually makes 
the beach more 
level, so that the 
sea can come far¬ 
ther and farther 
in if it chooses. 
Tides are curious 


An old Natica shell with barnacles grow¬ 
ing on it. 


things. Some sea towns have been buried by 
the sand during one tide. But that does not 
happen more than once in a hundred years, per¬ 
haps. Sometimes, after a hundred years or 
more, the sea may, for some reason, retreat for 
good and all, and leave the ruins of the same 
little town exposed once more. In some parts 
of this country the sea is gaining on the land, 
in other parts it is drawing away from it.” 



88 


THE GREEN GATE 



It was a wonderful sight to see the waves 
come up the beach. Over toward the cliffs 
they could see them dash against the rocks and 

send white spray 
high up in the air. 
No wonder the 
rocks were being 
torn away, little 
by little! Great 
spars and pieces of 
wood were borne 
along on top of 
the water like 
straws. A boat 
had been dashed to pieces on the rocks, and the 
fragments were floating about here and there. 

It had stopped raining now, and the wind had 
gone down a little. Holding them fast by the 
hand, their father started to walk along the 
beach, very slowly and cautiously. 

“Thetide has turned/' he said. “I guess the 
sea has done its worst, for this once, at least." 

Under the shelter of the canvas awning, which, 
fortunately, had not been torn to bits and blown 
away by the wind, they stood for a long time 


Another Natica or sea snail; this also 
has barnacles growing on it. 


SHELLS 


89 


watching the surf. The tide gradually went 
down so that they could make their way across 
the sand. Philip and Elinor picked up a great 
many different kinds of shells, and put them 



Two open mussel shells: The left picture shows the “ lines of growth ” ; 
and the right shows the hinge that holds the pair of shells together. 


into their pails. There were tiny ones, of many 
colors. Some were bright orange, some white 
with colored stripes. There were pearly white 
shells that curled round and round and ended 
in sharp points. There were flat ones with 
little seats in them like tiny carriages. There 
were long, narrow shells, that fastened together 
with hinges. These were called razor shells, 
their father said, because they looked like ra- 


90 


THE GREEN GATE 


zors. The children were greatly taken with the 
shells that fitted together like doors. Some 
were spread open. Some had broken apart. 

“This is a clamshell/' said their father. 
“There must be many clams here. Ah! See 
that little hole in the sand ? That is an air hole 
for a clam. Now let us dig a little here." 

A few shovelfuls of sand around the hole were 
taken away. Then a spurt of water came 
right up into Philip's face. 



A long-necked clam. The neck is really a pair of water tubes and 
water goes in one tube and out the other. The clam gets its 
food from the water in this way. A little of the foot shows at the 
right side of the shell. 

“Ha! ha! Mr. Clam is at home, sure 
enough!" laughed his father. “You may find 
him by digging, but he is probably boring down 
into the sand to escape you, while you are en¬ 
gaged in wiping the salt water from your face. 





SHELLS 


91 


That is his way of protecting himself. Each 
animal has its own means of protection.” 



A mussel showing the threads by which it often fastens itself to 
rocks and pier posts. 

But Philip dug away furiously, and soon 
brought to light a clam. Its two doors were 
shut tightly, but through the crack they could 
see that there was something alive that filled 
the shell. 

“ Shells that have two doors are called bi¬ 
valves. Shells that are all in one piece are 
univalves. That is a good thing to remem¬ 
ber, for all shell animals are divided into those 
two kinds." 

“ These shells with two doors are safer than 
the others, that have only holes, aren't they?" 
asked Elinor. 



92 


THE GREEN GATE 


“Oh, the univalves have 
doors, too. But their doors 
fit closely into the little round 
holes. They are just as safe. 
Haven't you seen a live uni¬ 
valve? Come, here is one." 
He held out a little cockle¬ 
shell. “See the door? It is partly open. The 
live creature is inside. Touch it, and see how 



A door of a sea snail’s 
shell or house. 





Four different kinds of shell doors. 


quickly the door closes. Ah! Here is one of 
the doors, lying by itself on the sand. It is a 
little golden-brown, round piece of transparent 
stuff. But it is tough and strong, and makes 



SHELLS 


93 


a capital door. Different shells have differently 
shaped doors.” 

"Do all shells live 'way 
down under the sand, like 
clams?” asked Elinor. 



"Most shell animals like to A shell door with very 
burrow a little under the pretty markin ^ 
sand,” answered her father, “but there are very 
few kinds that go down so far as clams do. 



A dead shell, showing just a hole where 
the door belongs. 


Wherever you see little ridges in the sand, you 
may usually be sure to find some kind of shell 
animal. Come, it is time to be turning back. 
It is nearly luncheon time. And I am hungry, 
aren't you?” 

The children ran up the plank walk, down the 




94 


THE GREEN GATE 


hill, through the 
Green Gate, along 
the gravel walk, and 
into the big white 
house, where their 
mother waited for 
them. She had 
been afraid that 
perhaps the wind 
had blown them all 
out to sea. 

Two views of a limpet or Quaker cap; “ Here We are 

the upper is the side view, and the 

lower picture shows how the shell Mummy ! And 
appears as you look down on it. weVg had a fine 

time! Oh, the big waves !” 

“And we've found some lovely, lovely shells! 
We want to show them to you!” 

Mummy spread out a newspaper on the 
nursery floor, and the children poured their 
shells out upon it. 

They had a great many kinds — cunning little 
cockle-shells, tiny round shells of all colors, 
bright yellow, white, brown, and gray; long 
shells drawn out into points and curving about 
in lovely whorls; shells with stripes; shells with 




SHELLS 


95 


spots; pretty limpets, or Quaker caps as they 
are sometimes called because they look like 
little round hats with pointed crowns; and round, 
shiny shells. It was a beautiful collection. 



The under side of a limpet. The head has two feelers like the snaihs. 



“This one looks very much like a fresh-water 
snail,” said their mother, picking up a round 
shell. “It walks along on its large foot, drag¬ 
ging its house upon its back just as a snail does. 
It has little horns in front, and two tiny eyes 














96 


THE GREEN GATE 


to see with. On the back of its foot is its door, 
which is usually an exact fit to the opening of 
the shell. When the little animal wants to go 
inside, he draws himself within, and the last 



A snail walking on its foot. Notice its two feelers; the pipe through 
which the snail gets its water is waving around above it. The door 
shows at the left of the shell. 


thing to go is the door, which falls into place 
right over the opening. Isn't that wonderful ? " 
“This one looks as though it had been twisted 
around and around," said Elinor. 

“Yes, that is the way they grow. Each twist 
or whorl shows a new time of its growth. It is 
very interesting. Sometime you will learn 
all about shells. There is nothing more beauti¬ 
ful in the world than a shell, I think." 

“I should think those little thin ones would 
get broken all to bits in a storm," said Elinor. 




SHELLS 


97 


''After they are thrown up on the beach the 
empty shells get broken, but when they are 
alive the shell-animals seem to know how to 
protect themselves. They know where to hide, 
and what are the best places to live in. But it 
is time to get ready for luncheon now. You 
have had an eventful morning, dears.” 

The children soon appeared, washed and 
dressed. 

"Now, a story, please,” said Philip. 

"About a shell,” said Elinor. 

"There are any number of things that could 
be told about shells,” said their mother. "Well, 
I will tell you a story-poem about Shells.” 



An empty snail shell. Hermit crabs often kill and eat these snails 
and then live in their shells. 


SHELLS 


Oh, what lovely, pearly shells, 
Lying on the beach ! 

Some I see beneath the waves 
Just beyond our reach. 

Now, Eve found an empty one; 
Round and round it curls, 
Starting in a point above 
In whorls and whorls and whorls. 

Watch for little grooves of sand; 
That’s the way you know 
A living, breathing creature 
Is hidden down below. 

Take your little shovel; 

Dig down carefully; 

Underneath the shell his foot 
Clearly you can see. 

With his shield thrust forward 
He is walking now; 

Pushing sand to left and right, 

A sturdy little plow. 


98 


SHELLS 


99 


Ah! He knows you're looking! 

In a moment more 

He draws himself within his house, 

And closes up his door. 



This brown seaweed or rockweed is very common along our 
Eastern coast. 

100 









VII. THE SAND DOLLAR 


A few days later the children were up bright 
and early. It was a beautiful day. The sky 
was a deep blue. Light, fleecy clouds floated 
in the sky. The sun shone brightly. You 
would not have thought that there could be 
such a thing as a storm. 

As soon as breakfast was over the children 
were eager to go to the beach. It seemed to 
take their mother such a long time to get ready! 
The last thing she did before starting was to 
fold up some pieces of paper and put them in 
her straw bag. Then she took some matches 
in a little box and put them into the bag beside 
the paper. 

“Oh, what are you taking matches for, 
Mummy?” asked Elinor. 

“There is very little wind today, and it is 
rather cool. I thought we might build a drift¬ 
wood fire on the beach.” 

“Oh, what fun!” cried Philip. 

“If we do, children, you must be very, very 


101 


102 


THE GREEN GATE 


careful and not go too near the fire, for the wind 
blows things about when one is out of doors, 
and fires are dangerous things to deal with. 
Don't forget, will you, dears?" 

“No, Mummy, we won't forget. We don't 
want to get burned up," said Elinor. 

“And we won't burn you up, either, Mummy 
dear," added Philip. 

“The chief thing to fear is forest fires," said 
their mother. “People are careless sometimes. 
They leave a spark burning. It smoulders 
and smokes. By and by the wind rises, blows 
the spark into a flame, and the flame crawls 
along the ground until it reaches the bushes 
and trees. Great forests have been destroyed 
in this way. Think of the beautiful trees be¬ 
ing burned up, and all through someone's 
carelessness!" 

“We won't be careless, Mummy. We won't 
forget, will we, Philip?" 

“No, we won't forget," repeated Philip. 

The beach was a mass of wreckage from end 
to end. Far above high tide mark were heaps 
of all kinds of things. The holes in the sand 
dunes showed where the water had poured 


THE SAND DOLLAR 


103 


through during the recent storm. A great pond 
still stood on the marshes beyond, and the road 



An old mussel shell with seaweeds, barnacles and shells growing on it. 


was a foot deep in water. If another big tide 
came today, the path was made easy for the sea 
to come through the same opening, make it wider, 
and level the sand around the opening by scat¬ 
tering it about. Then every high tide might 
come through. But the wind would help build 
a barrier by blowing the sand back into place. 
The marsh grass would spread its roots and 
make the barrier firmer. 

Elinor and Philip ran back and forth along 
the beach collecting driftwood. Some of the 
wood was still wet and heavy. But some of 





104 


THE GREEN GATE 


it was dry. Mummy found a nice place for 
the fire, in front of a rock that was hollowed 
out so that it formed a sort of fireplace. The 
children threw the dry wood down in a heap 
near by. Their mother took a match, some 
paper, and some tiny bits of light wood, which 
she placed criss-cross. Then she lighted a 
match. The wind blew it out. She tried an¬ 
other. But a mischievous puff of wind came, 
and out it went! 

“The third time never fails/' she said. 

A bright flame flickered up, caught the paper 
and sticks. Carefully at first, piece by piece, 
more wood was put on, until a bright blaze 
told that the fire was really going. Then the 
children threw on driftwood. It crackled and 
blazed brightly, making a pretty picture against 
the blue sea and sky. 

Philip and Elinor danced about it, throwing 
in piece after piece of wood, which took on all 
sorts of lovely colors in the flames. They put 
on bunches of dry seaweed that spluttered and 
crackled and sent up clouds of smoke. Larger 
and larger pieces were thrown on; spars from 
a ship, a broken side of a lobster pot, an old 


THE SAND DOLLAR 105 

dried tree stump that had whitened in the sun 
and wind. It was a glorious fire, indeed ! 

Then the sea came creeping up, step by step. 
A wave struck against the rock and sent some 
spray hissing into the fire. Then a wave ran 
into the fire with a swish. Smoke went up, 
but the fire blazed on. Then another wave 
leaped in, as though the sea was determined 
to quench the fire at once. This time it seemed 
to have conquered. But up flickered a flame 
on the farther side. 

Hiss! hiss-ss! splash! The fire was out! 

“Oh, see what I’ve found!” cried Elinor, 
brushing aside the sand and picking up some¬ 
thing which she laid flat in her palm. 

“Why, it is round and thin, like a piece of 
money!” said Philip. 

“It is made of sand, I think,” said Elinor. 
“No, it is a shell. No, it doesn’t look like a 
shell exactly, either.” 

“Let’s show it to Mummy,” said Philip. 

So they took it to Mummy, who was sit¬ 
ting on a rock watching the tide go down. 

“Oh,” she said, “you have found a sand 
dollar. There must be others around on the 


106 


THE GREEN GATE 


beach, too. But I have not often found them 
here. If you find one you may find others. 
They are sometimes called cake urchins, or 
sand cakes/' 

“But what is it, Mummy? Is it a shell?" 
asked Philip. 

“It is more like a sea urchin than anything 
else, isn't it? It is a cousin of the sea urchin 
and of the starfish, too. It belongs to the 
ray family. See the design on its back. Does 
not that remind you a little of the design on the 
back of a sea urchin ? It does look like a piece 
of money, doesn't it ? That's why they call it 
a sand dollar. That’s easy to remember. A 
silver dollar used to be of about that size." 

“Here's a little one. It's darker than yours," 
said Philip. 

“But you can see the little figure on its back," 
said Elinor. 

“When the sand dollar is alive it is covered 
with spines," said their mother. “ It is a purple 
color then. But when it is exposed to the air 
the spines turn green. Sand dollars live mostly 
in sand below the water, and where the surf dashes 
on the beaches. See, the mouth is this hole 


/ 


THE SAND DOLLAR 


107 


on the under side. The figure that looks like 
a lovely, petal-shaped design, like a flower, is 
formed by the little tube-feet which run in five 
petal-shaped lines. I have been told that the 
fishermen grind up the shells and make ink 
of them.” 



A sand dollar, without any spines left in it, and showing clearly the 
five-petal pattern. 

“I wish we could find one with the spines 
on,” said Elinor. 

“We are not likely to find one on the beach. 
These have lain in the hot sun until their fine, 
silky hairs have dried and then fallen off.” 

“Here is a lovely one, almost white,” said 
Elinor. “We have another thing to add to 
our collection! ” 



108 


THE GREEN GATE 


The tide had gone down a good deal. Elinor 
and Philip went in wading. They danced and 
splashed and chased the waves; then turned 
and ran away just in time to escape them. Who 
could believe that the playful, sparkling waves 
belonged to the same ocean that had come 
thundering and bellowing up the beach such a 
short time before! 

The children's pails were soon filled with 
shells and pebbles, sea urchins, sand dollars, 
crab shells, cunning little Quaker caps of differ¬ 
ent sizes, seaweed, and other things. 



Old worn snail shells, showing the spiral or whorl at the top. 


"Come, dears. It is time to go home, now," 
came their mother's voice. 

So they gathered together their pails and 
shovels and went across the beach, up the plank 


THE SAND DOLLAR 


109 


walk, down the hill, through the Green Gate, 
along the garden walk, and into the big white 
house. 

Elinor and Philip stowed their precious things 
safely away at the end of the piazza. 

"Now tell us a story, please, Mummy,” 
they begged. 

"What shall it be about today?” she asked. 

"Oh, tell about a sand dollar.” 

So Mummy told them the story-poem of the 
Sand Dollar. 


SAND DOLLAR 

Now what have we here, covered up with the 
sand? 

Pick it up. Brush it off. Lay it flat on your 
hand. 

It is called a Sand Dollar — a thin little cake, 

Like a cookie of sand, with a very hard bake. 

It looks like a dollar; a little bit bigger; 

On its surface you see a five-petal shaped figure. 

This figure is formed by the tiny tube-feet. 

Its mouth is the center, and here the tubes meet. 

Just look all about! They are here by the 
dozen! 

You see, the Sand Dollar is really a cousin 

To sea urchins: yes, and to starfishes, too; 

They're relations exactly like me and like you. 

They're found below tide-mark when they are 
alive. 

You scarcely would find one unless you could 
dive. 


no 


THE SAND DOLLAR 


111 


They are covered with spines soft and silky, 
like hair; 

Purple-brown, turning green when left out 
in the air. 

When they've lain on the beach in the heat of 
the sun, 

These hairs become dry and fall off, every one, 

Leaving just a sand dollar, and — what do 
you think ? 

Grind them up and they're said to make very 
good ink! 


Goose barnacles fast to a floating log. These are often seen on posts 
of piers and bottoms of boats. 

112 










































































































































VIII. BARNACLES 

"Where’s Mummy?” asked Philip, raising 
his head from the work that he was doing. He 
was making a barn, surrounded by a large 
barnyard with a high fence, all made of sand. 

"Why, she is sitting under the awning, 
isn’t she?” asked Elinor. She was making 
a lovely house and garden. 

They turned and looked at the place where 
their mother usually sat, under the canvas 
awning. She was not there! 

They ran to and fro on the beach, calling 
her. No answer came. Then they looked 
along the shore. They could see everything 
on the beach as far as the cliffs where the sea 
pools were. Their mother had told them not 
to go there without her. But she must be 
there herself. 

"She must be somewhere, mustn’t she?” 
said Philip, much puzzled. 

"Of course she is somewhere. She wouldn’t 
go off and leave us,” said Elinor. 

113 


114 


THE GREEN GATE 


“ Let's go and find her,” suggested Philip. 

So, with a regretful look at their uncompleted 
work of house and farm building, the two 
children took their pails and shovels and started 
down the beach towards the cliffs. 

Little Mr. Crab poked his head out at them 
from behind a rock. He eyed them in a friendly 
way, they thought. They were old comrades 
now. 

Sea urchins lay about. That is to say, their 
empty shells did. Some were bare, some were 
partly covered with half-dried prickles. In a 
little pool between two rocks a live one lay. His 
spines were bright green, with some brown 
ones running in lines down his back. 

"Hello, Mr. Sea Urchin! It must be nice 
and cool in that pool,” said Elinor. 

"See the starfishes! Why, they are all 
curled up !” said Philip. 

"They are waiting for the tide to come back, 
I suppose,” said Elinor. 

Long pieces of kelp covered the beach. Their 
graceful leaf ends were spread out and curled 
in every direction. Their root ends were fast¬ 
ened tightly to stones and little shells, bar- 


BARNACLES 


115 


nacles, and all sorts of things that were packed 
closely together and held in a bunch by the 
strong roots. 



"She must be here, of course/' said Elinor, 
looking around. 

“Perhaps she is behind that big rock," said 
Philip. 

As they went farther down the beach, the 
rocks began to loom up before them. They 
began to walk over sharp stones and slippery 
seaweed. It was funny seaweed, golden brown 
in color, with little berries on it, like tiny bal¬ 
loons filled with air. They burst with a pop 
when squeezed. The little balloons seemed 


116 


THE GREEN GATE 


to be made on purpose to float on top of the 
water. Tiny shell-animals and limpets were 
fastened to the branches. They clung so tightly 
that it was hard to pull them off. 

“See, here's a shell with its door open! Oh, 
how funny!” cried Elinor. 

Philip ran to see. The shell door was open¬ 
ing wider! Out came a white body, with a 
pair of little horns on its head. This way and 
that it turned, as though in search of some¬ 
thing. It was a sea snail. 




Two pictures of a sea snail. The snail on the left has closed his 
door. The one on the right is out and moving around; the door 
shows to the left of his shell. 

“Let's put him down and see what he will 
do," said Elinor. 

So they put him down on a rock, and he be¬ 
gan to walk along. A walking shell was an odd 
sight to the children. Soon it came to a piece 


BARNACLES 


117 


of seaweed which seemed to suit it. There it 
stopped and refused to go farther. 

Soon the children came to a large pool. It 
was quite deep in the middle. They waded 
into it and began to play. It was fortunate 
that they had on their bathing suits, for they 
often slipped and fell into the water. They found 
a chip of wood with a string tied to it. It made 
a fine raft. Many treasures were transported 
across from one shore to the other. It was a 
fine place to play in. 

" Hello! Hello, children! Where are you ? ” 

It was their mother's voice. It came from 
near by. 

Elinor looked up, and all around. She could 
not see anyone at first. 

"Where are you, Mummy? Here we are. 
We were looking for you," they answered. 

"But we forgot all about looking for you," 
added Philip. 

They could see a head sticking straight up 
from behind a rock. It was their mother. 

"Come over here and see the barnacles!" 

So the two children went scrambling over 
the rocks towards their mother. They saw 


118 


THE GREEN GATE 


lovely little pools here and there, half hidden 
among the seaweeds. Elinor found some 
Quaker caps. But instead of being empty 
caps, like those that she had found on the 
beach, these were fastened to the seaweed or 
the rocks. One was on a shell. Its little soft 
body enveloped the top of the shell and held 
tightly. 

Philip found some “ white holes,” as he called 
them, all over the rocks. They were little 
circular knobs of hard, white shell. There 
were cracks in the shell, as though it had been 
pieced together. Many of them had holes in 
the middle, and, looking in, you could see that 
they were empty. Others had shell doors 
covering the holes. That usually meant that 
the little animal was still alive inside his house, 
or “inside his head,” as Elinor put it. 

“Come and look closely, dears,” said their 
mother, when they drew near. 

She was bending over a pool, with her face 
close to the water's surface. The children bent 
close down, too. 

“What is it?” asked Philip. 

“Barnacles. You have some empty barnacle 


BARNACLES 


119 


shells in your hand, Philip. These barnacles 
are alive. Look underneath the water. See, 
their tiny doors are 
open wide. Their 
threadlike tentacles, or 
feelers, or legs are feel¬ 
ing about in all direc¬ 
tions. Those little 
hairlike things are 
their legs. And they 
are kicking food into 
their mouths. They 
look like little round 
heads, with no bodies, 
don't they ? ” 

“Oh! Oh! See all 
the little legs kicking!" cried Philip. 

“When they are under water there is food 
all around them in it. All they have to do is 
to gather it into their mouths. When they 
are high and dry they close their shell doors 
and look like little white crusts on the rocks. 
Now, knock on the rock and see what hap¬ 
pens, Philip." 

Philip rapped on the rock with his fist. 



A goose barnacle with its feathery 
feet pushed out into the ocean 
water. With these feet the 
barnacle kicks its food into its 
mouth. 



120 


THE GREEN GATE 


"Listen carefully/' whispered their mother. 

Very faintly, they could hear a click! click! 
clicking! all around them in the little pool. The 
barnacles were shutting their doors! 

"That is what they do when visitors come," 
said their mother. "They are not sure whether 
you intend to meddle with them or not. So 
they shut their little doors, and there they are, 
safe and snug in their shell houses. Wait a 
while and they will slowly open them again 
when they think all danger is past." 

One by one, slowly and cautiously, the doors 
opened, out crept the tiny feelers, and in a 
minute or two waved to and fro as before. Soon 
the entire pool was alive with the movement. 

For a long time the children watched the bar¬ 
nacles. Above the pool, on the rocks, were thou¬ 
sands of them, high and dry, with close-shut 
doors, looking as though they were a part of 
the rock itself. 

How quickly their pails filled with strange 
and curious things! Elinor picked up a round¬ 
ish piece of brown thin substance. It was a 
shell door, which had once been a perfect fit 
for some shell-animal's home. 


BARNACLES 


121 



“To think that those little white things that 
we see all over the rocks are really alive,” said 
Elinor, as they passed the barnacle-covered 
rocks. 

''Youwill be more sur¬ 
prised when I tell you 
that the little baby bar¬ 
nacle, when it comes out 
of its nursery is very dif¬ 
ferent from a full grown 
one. It is a little animal 
with one eye, three pairs 
of legs, and a shell. It 
swims about for a little 
while, shedding its shell several times and 
each time getting a new one. Then, for a 
while it has two eyes, six pairs of legs, and two 
shells! Now it begins to look for a home. 
It fastens itself to a rock with its feelers, and a 
kind of cement in its body somehow sticks it 
to the rock securely. Then a new bivalve shell 
grows, and also curled, feathery legs. It sheds 
its skin as it grows, parts of it at a time. The 
lines on its shell show how it has grown up out 
of the old part of the shell. When it sheds its 


A baby barnacle just hatched 
from the egg. It is smaller 
than this letter i, and can¬ 
not be seen without a mag¬ 
nifying glass. 


122 


THE GREEN GATE 


skin in the spring the thin, shining coat floats 
about on the water. There is a kind of bar¬ 
nacle that fastens to ships and floating logs.” 



A mussel shell with one barnacle growing on it; there is also a scar 
where a barnacle has been broken off. Sometimes so many of 
these barnacles grow on the bottoms of boats that they have to 
be scraped off so that the boat can move through the water 
with greater ease. 

“I shall put these barnacle shells in our col¬ 
lection,” said Philip. 

“I think barnacles are as interesting as any¬ 
thing that we’ve found,” said Elinor. “And 
who would think they were interesting at all, 
to look at them on the rocks?” 

The tide was coming up. The beach grew 
narrower and smaller as they crossed it and 
went up the plank walk, down the hill, through 
the Green Gate, along the garden walk, and into 
the big white house. 


BARNACLES 


123 


“What shall the story-poem be today?” 
asked their mother, smiling. She knew what 
it would be. 

“Oh, barnacles, barnacles!” cried both chil¬ 
dren together. 

So she told them the story-poem about Bar¬ 
nacles. 


BARNACLES 


Barnacles, Barnacles, 

Clinging to the rock, 

Are you all at home today ? 

Knock! Knock! Knock ! 

Listen, now! They seem to think 
Visitors are bores! 

Click-a-click! Click-a-click ! 

Shut the tiny doors. 

Little Sea Acorns 
Fastened by their heads; 

Glued with cement tight and strong 
Fast to rocky beds. 

Cautiously and carefully 
Lid-doors open wide; 

Thread-like legs are stretching forth, 
Covered by the tide. 

Tiny feathered feelers 
Reaching high and low, 

Thousands moving all at once, 
Waving to and fro. 


124 


BARNACLES 


125 


Stretching out, drawing back, 
Busy feathered feet 
Carry food to open mouths — 
That’s the way they eat! 

Piece by piece, one by one, 
Split the skins, and, lo ! 

A bit is added to the shell — 
That’s the way they grow! 



126 


A knobbed whelk, one of the pear-shaped sea snails, and a deserted nursery. 








































































IX. THE JELLY-FISH 


Philip and Elinor were up bright and early 
the next morning. The sun was pouring 
brightly into the nursery window. The crows 
were cawing in the trees outside. Sea gulls 
flew over the tree-tops on their way to the sea. 
Their shrill calls could be heard for a long dis¬ 
tance. They were used to making their voices 
heard above the noise of winds and waves. 

As soon as they could get started after break¬ 
fast the children were at the door waiting for 
their mother. She soon joined them and they 
all went down the garden walk, through the 
Green Gate, up the hill, down the plank walk, 
and on to their beloved beach. They danced 
and sang. It was such a lovely, lovely day, and 
it was so good to be out in the sunshine. 

"I shall sit here in the shade for a while,” 
said their mother, finding a comfortable spot 
in the shelter of a rock. “ If you want me, call, 
and I shall hear you. Do not wander too far 
away, dears.” 


127 


128 


THE GREEN GATE 


So the children went racing and romping along 
the glistening beach. They had taken off their 
shoes and stockings, and their clothes were 
pinned up so as to be out of the way when they 
went in wading. Soon they came to something 
that they had never seen before. It looked 
like a long string of seed pods, like those in 
Uncle John’s vegetable garden in the fall. The 
pods were quite empty. They were curved 
through the middle, and rattled dryly when 
Philip shook them. 

"What do you suppose it can be?” asked 
Philip. 

" It looks something like a wrinkled-up snake’s 
skin,” said Elinor. 

"But it can’t be that. Snakes don’t live on 
the beach, do they?” asked Philip. 

"No, they don’t. Let’s show it to Mummy,” 
said Elinor. 

So they scampered up the beach, dragging 
the long string of pods after them. 

Their mother looked up from her book. " Well, 
what have you found now?” she asked. 

"We don’t know what it is. What is it, 
Mummy?” asked Elinor. 


THE JELLY-FISH 


129 


“It is an empty nursery. The children have 
grown up and have left their first home for 
larger quarters.” 

“A nursery! Why, it looks like a snake's 
skin!” cried Philip. 

“They are sometimes called ‘vegetable rattle¬ 
snakes,' these cast-off nurseries. But they are 
not vegetables at all, but animal homes. The 
baby whelks who lived in them for a while, 
now have nice homes of their own which they 
carry about with them on their backs.” 

“On their backs! How funny!” laughed 
Philip. 

“Yes, the whelk is a small shell-animal shaped 
like a snail, only drawn out longer at one end 
into a sort of canal, which makes its shell pear- 
shaped. Because their shells are pear-shaped, 
some of these sea-snails are called Pyrula. Pyrula 
is a Latin word meaning ‘ little pear.' The scien¬ 
tists who named them thought that would help 
us to remember. And it does help, doesn't it?” 

“ Py-ru-la , Tittle pear,"' said Elinor. “Yes, 
I think I shall remember that.” 

“When baby Pyrula gets big enough he 
leaves his nest, which is one of these pods here. 


130 


THE GREEN GATE 


At first there are many little ones together in 
each nest, but before long the pods are all 
empty. Then the strings of empty pods are 
washed up on the shore, just as this one has been 
cast up. They are often even longer than this 
one, a yard long, perhaps.” 

"What does he look like when he is grown 
up?” asked Elinor. 

"A grown-up Pyrula is an odd-looking little 
fellow. His house is built over his back, just as 
a lady holds her parasol when the sun is behind 
her. His head has little feelers, or tentacles, 
as they are called, and he has eyes on them 
which stick out, so he can see his way quite 
clearly. His foot drags behind him like a trail¬ 
ing dress. This foot supports the door of his 
house.” 

"Oh, how funny!” cried the children again. 

"He is really a very interesting little animal. 
He has only one foot. But that foot is as good 
as a dozen ordinary feet. On it he creeps about 
wherever he wants to go; but enough of it 
drags behind to support the door. And, when 
he wants to he can draw that foot completely 
within his house, and close the door after him!” 


THE JELLY-FISH 


131 


“What is his door made of? Is it like those 
thin, round, yellow things with a curl on one 
end?” asked Elinor. 

“His door is a thin oval-shaped piece that 
just fits the opening. When it is closed tight 
you might mistake the shell for an empty one. 
In olden times people called it the 'Tower of 
Babel Fig Shell/ for, you see, they thought 
that it was shaped like a fig. It is, somewhat.” 

"Tell some more. How does the baby get 
into the water?” asked Philip. 





The picture on the left (a) shows four egg-cases. The egg-case on 
the right is marked s to show where it was fastened to the stem, 
and o to show where the little baby shell-animals come out. 


“The baby whelk lives in the water. When 
the baby is little he is in one of these little pods 
or compartments, as I told you. There are 
many different rooms, and in each room are 
several babies. There they live and grow, 


132 


THE GREEN GATE 


protected from their enemies, until they are 
big enough to look out for themselves. Then, 
suddenly, a round door in the front opens! 
Out run the children, and scamper straight into 
the sea. They are very tiny even then — not 
so long as your finger nail. Their shells are 
very thin at first, but they harden as they 
grow. When the shell is six or seven inches 
long the Pyrula is really grown up.” 

“My! I wish we could see one grown up!” 
said Elinor. 

“You would laugh to hear some of his long 
names. But you would find it hard to remember 
them. Pyrula and whelk will be enough for you, 
at present.” 

“I hope he doesn't have to remember all his 
names,” said Philip. 

“No, he has never even heard of any of 
them,” laughed Mummy. 

“Now let us see what else we shall find,” 
said Elinor. 

So they went along the beach. Pretty soon 
Philip stopped short. 

“What is that?” he said, pointing to a long, 
snake-like object lying on the sand. 


THE JELLY-FISH 133 

“It really looks like a snake, doesn't it?" he 
whispered. “Perhaps this really is one." 

“It lies very still,” said Elinor. 

They crept up closer and closer, ready to 
fly at the least movement of the long, thin 
snake. It lay coiled in a circle with its head 
up. All of a sudden Elinor burst out laughing. 

“Why, it is only a long piece of kelp. But 
it hasn't any leaf end, and — look, Philip! 
It's holding a stone in its hand!" 

Philip seized an end of it and unwound it. 
The root end, which had been fastened to the 
bottom of the sea when it was torn up, still 
held fast to a stone. The stone was all en¬ 
crusted with a pink crust. And there were 
little shells and seaweed fastened to it, too! 

"We will take this home," said Philip, hang¬ 
ing an end of the snake over his arm and trail¬ 
ing it behind him. 

"Here is something! The funniest thing of 
all! Oh, Elinor! Come and look!" he cried, 
a moment later. 

There, lying at his feet, was a round mass of 
red jelly! It was motionless: not alive, evi¬ 
dently. What could it be ? 


134 


THE GREEN GATE 


“Let us call Mummy. There she is now,” 
said Elinor. 

“Look, Mummy! We’ve found some jelly 
pudding on the sand!” cried Philip. 



This jelly-fish is very much more common along our coast than the 
kind in the next picture. This jelly-fish has very short tentacles 
all around the edge. 

His mother laughed. “That is a jelly-fish/’ 
she said. “Some people call it a sun jelly; 
some call it a sun fish; but that is not its name 
at all. There is a fish called a sun fish, you 
know, not at all like this. Medusa is the jelly¬ 
fish’s other name. That is a pretty name, 
isn’t it?” 

“That is a very pretty name. But is it an 
animal? It must be queer to be made of jelly,” 
said Elinor. 




















THE JELLY-FISH 


135 


“ Isn’t it funny! Does it live in the water ?” 
asked Philip. 

"Yes, it floats lazily about in the water. 
When the sun shines it comes up and floats on 
the surface. It is a beautiful thing when it is 
in its home, the sea. It has a lovely design on 
its back, — that is, on its upper surface. Per¬ 
haps we may see a live one some day. Then 
you can see how pretty it is. At the end of 
the summer, after a happy life in the waves, 
it is washed up on the sands or among the rocks, 
and looks like a mass of jelly. It is almost all 
water, and the heat of the sun dries it up in a 
short time, so that there is nothing left of it.” 

"It hasn’t any shell to protect it, has it?” 
asked Elinor. 

"No, it has no shell, but it has thread-like 
feelers, or tentacles that can sting quite badly. 
They are a fine protection. You should see 
Medusa floating in the water, with all her 
colored streamers trailing about her. When 
we go out in the motor boat this afternoon we 
will look for them. This is the time of year to 
see them floating near shore. Their days of 
usefulness are over.” 


136 


THE GREEN GATE 


"What are they like when they are little?” 
asked Philip. 

"The babies are very tiny. In the spring 
they float about, attach themselves to a rock, 
and stay until they 
have grown big enough 
to float freely about 
in the water-world 
which is their home.” 

"Can’t we take it 
home and put it in 
our collection ? ” asked 
Philip. 

"It is not best to 
touch it. Its feelers 



are still 
they say. 
have to 


poisonous, 
We shall 
remember 


how it looked, instead, 


One of the large jelly-fish not often 
found on our shores. These are shall We not ? ’ 
sometimes three to five feet 
wide and have tentacles which 
may be thirty to forty feet long. 


It was time to go 
back, for that after¬ 
noon the children were going on a motor boat 
ride with Daddy, Mummy, Uncle John, and 
Auntie May. So, with a regretful look at 

























THE JELLY-FISH 


137 


Medusa, lying on the sand, they went back 
along the beach, up the plank walk, down 
the hill, through the Green Gate, along the 
garden walk, and into the big white house. 

Philip put his sea serpent, as he called the 
long snake-like piece of kelp, in a corner of the 
piazza with the other treasures from the beach. 
Elinor put the long snake-like pods of the Pyru- 
la’s nursery beside it. 

And then they said, “A story, please, 
Mummy .’ 9 

“What shall it be about today, dears?” 

“Oh, about Medusa,” said Elinor. 

“Yes, about the jelly-fish,” said Philip. 

So their mother told them the story-poem 
about the Jelly-Fish. 



An empty rock barnacle, worn down by the waves. 


JELLY-FISH 


I’m Medusa, the Sun Fish. 

I float to and fro 
On the sea with the tides 
As they ebb and they flow. 

Like a vision of beauty 
I dreamily lie 

In the warm, rippling waves 
While the sun is on high. 

Like a floating umbrella 
I open and close. 

Long streamers sway round me 
Of amber and rose. 

If danger approaches, 

Although Lve no shell, 

I have threads that can sting; 
They protect me quite well. 

In spring I’m so tiny! 

Fm only a baby! 

But I grow very fast 

For a month or two, maybe. 


138 


THE JELLY-FISH 


139 


Through the long summer season 
I’m happy and free. 

In the waves, now and then, 

You catch glimpses of me. 

Cast high on the sand 
You will find me one day. 

But the sun dries me up. 

And I vanish away. 

Yes, this old Jelly-Fish 
Without beauty or motion 
Was the shining Medusa 
Who lived in the ocean! 



140 


Two hermit crabs, with their soft bodies safely tucked away into their hard shells. 











































X. THE HERMIT CRAB 


“I wish we might go farther down on the 
beach today/' said Elinor, as they stood on the 
bluffs one bright September morning. 

"Oh, yes, where the tide pools are. We've 
got on our bathing suits, and we're not afraid 
of getting wet. Let's go 'way out to the far¬ 
thest rocks!" cried Philip. 

"Yes, yes! And the tide is out beyond 
White Rock, and won't be back for a long time!" 
added Elinor. 

"And we may find something — Oh, think 
what we might find !" cried Philip. 

So they went down, past the shining sands, 
past Pebbly Beach, and out on to the rocks. 
They stepped carefully on to the bare places 
that were not covered with slippery seaweed. 
But sometimes the rocks themselves were slip¬ 
pery and first Elinor would go— splash! — 
into a pool of water that had been left by the 
tide; and the next minute — ker-plump! — 
splash! Philip would go into another. The 

141 


142 


THE GREEN GATE 


crabs and starfishes and other inhabitants of 
the pools were much surprised, but the children 
did not care a bit. They picked themselves 
up, laughing. 

“What funny little berries the seaweed has!" 
said Philip. 

He took one in his fingers and squeezed it. 
It burst with a loud pop. This was fun. He 
squeezed a great many, laughing to hear them 
pop! pop! pop! 

“They are just like little balloons, aren't 
they? See, they float on top of the water, 
they are so light. And they hold the seaweed 
up, too." 

“What lots of seaweed! Some is brown, 
and some is red —" 

“And some is green and some is almost black. 
There is the golden-brown kind with the berries, 
and the dark brown kind that hangs over the 
rocks and looks like hair," went on Elinor. 

“And the red kind that grows out on those 
farthest rocks, and this green kind that's so 
pretty." 

“And here's some funny stiff seaweed that 
branches. See the little periwinkle shells cling- 


THE HERMIT CRAB 


143 


ing all over it. Why, there are thousands of 
them!" said Elinor. 

"These little black shells we played were 
cows. And the white ones were sheep/' said 
Philip. 

There were starfishes lying about in the 
pools, huddled together in all sorts of odd posi¬ 
tions. 

"Can they be alive?" asked Philip. 

"I guess they're just waiting for the sea to 
come back. Perhaps that's the way they sleep," 
said Elinor. 

"Oh, children! Come and look!" said their 
mother. 

She was stooping over, looking down into a 
pool. They drew near and looked too. 

"Oh-h! Why, it must be the door of Fairy¬ 
land !" whispered Elinor. 

"Oh-h!" said Philip, under his breath. 

It was so wonderful that they did not dare 
to speak aloud for fear that it might vanish 
entirely away! 

The floor of the pool was covered with a crust 
of salmon pink. Here and there were spots 
of a bright, pale green. Red, brown, and green 


144 


THE GREEN GATE 


moss hung from the sides of the pool, in tufts, 
here and there. On the floor were all sorts 
of lovely shells. Soft bunches of green, red, and 
yellow sponge were fastened to the walls. 
The children had never seen anything so beauti¬ 
ful before. 



Sea anemones and seaweed. One sea anemone is nearly closed; 
the others have their feelers out to get food. 

"Now look at the rock down in the water,” 
said their mother. "What do you see?” 

"Why, some round bunches with lovely 
fringy flowers growing out of them. What 
can they be?” asked Elinor. 











































THE HERMIT CRAB 


145 


“They are sea anemones. See the tiny scar¬ 
let one over there, about as big as a straw¬ 
berry? There is another one, open, with its 
branches spread out. See, here is a big brown 
one, nearly as big as a door knob. Ah, 
Philip! You knocked a bit of shell into the 
water! Now see them close up. They are 
easily frightened/' 

One by one the fringed feelers drew back into 
the little creatures' mouths, leaving a round 
bunch clinging to the rock. 

“The fringe that waves to and fro is carrying 
food into their mouths all the time. The 
water is full of all kinds of food that they like. 
That is the way they eat. See, they think 
that the danger that they feared is gone. They 
are opening again." 

One by one, the delicate branches appeared 
once more, and waved about. There were 
sea urchins and crabs in the pool. The crabs 
were of all sizes. They scuttled in and out 
among the seaweeds. 

“Crabs are found all over the world," said 
their mother. “There are a great many 
different kinds. In some warm countries there 


146 


THE GREEN GATE 


are crabs bigger than you are, Philip. They 
wander around over the land and into the sea. 
They have sharp claws, too, nearly as big 
as your hand, Philip." 

“He wouldn't try to lift one of those up by 
the claw, would he?" laughed Elinor. 

“Think of meeting one of them! My! Pm 
glad they don't live around here," said Philip. 

Suddenly their mother stooped down, with 
an exclamation. 

“A hermit crab !" she cried. “Yes! It is a 
hermit crab! " 

The children bent over until their faces nearly 
touched the water. This time they saw, scam¬ 
pering over the floor of the pool, a shell, round 
and white like those they had seen on the beach 
sometimes. But this shell had legs, and in¬ 
stead of crawling slowly along on one spreading 
foot, like some that they had seen, it was run¬ 
ning along quite fast. 

“Oh! A shell with legs! How funny!" 
cried Elinor. 

“See it run!" cried Philip. 

Two large forelegs stuck out of the hole of 
the shell, and a curious-looking head. It did 


THE HERMIT CRAB 


147 


not look at all like any shell that they had seen 
before. 

"That is a hermit crab, children/' said 
Mummy. "He has helped himself to a shell 
that once belonged to someone else, and has 
taken it for his own home. He carries his house 
on his back, you see." 

"But why did he do it, Mummy?" 



The hermit crabs which live in these large shells always have large, 
rough claws. 

"The hermit crab's shell is very soft. His 
back has no protection at all. So he has to 
find a shell that will take the place of one of 
his own. He picks out a shell that he likes the 







148 


THE GREEN GATE 


looks of, gathers himself together, and then 
jumps into it, as quick as a wink. If it fits, 
he stays there, squeezing himself down into it 
snugly. He places his big front claw over 
the opening, and it makes a capital door! There 
he is, 'as snug as a bug in a rug/ and when 
he wants to come out he sticks out his head and 
forefeet, looks about, and if the coast is clear, 
off he runs, his shell on top of his back, and his 
soft body inside.” 

"Well, I never—!” exclaimed Elinor, who 
had been listening breathlessly. 

"By and by, perhaps, he grows bigger,” went 
on her mother. "The shell becomes too small. 
So he looks about, finds another shell that he 
likes, quite different, it may be, from the other; 
he jumps into it, quickly, and, if it is a fit, 
he is quite satisfied. Isn't that funny?” 

"Why! Why!” was all the children could 
find to say, they were so surprised. 

"Sometimes a sea anemone fastens itself 
on to his shell, and they all travel about to¬ 
gether. And seaweed, too, often clings to his 
shell. He is well protected then. No one 
would ever guess he was a crab.” 


THE HERMIT CRAB 


149 


Splash! Swish! 

A ripple of water stirred the pool, and eddied 
about. Then another came. The pool wak¬ 
ened into new life. Everything in it seemed, 
somehow, to be aware of a change. The cold 
tide water sweeping into the warm water of 
the pool, which had been lying in the sun for 
several hours since the tide had left it, must 
feel strange to the tiny creatures living in it. 
But it was not only the coolness of the water that 
the living creatures felt. The fresh tide water 
was full of new life; living things, so tiny as to 
be all but invisible; food for the hungry mouths 
that had exhausted the supply in the pool. 

The starfishes began to stir a little, ever so 
little at first. A leg stretched slowly out; 
then another. The starfishes began to look really 
like stars, and not a tangle of violet, red, and 
crimson legs. One of the starfishes floated 
glidingly forward, without apparent effort. 
How good that fresh salt water was! 

The seaweed floated gently to and fro as 
though waking from a nap. The crabs grew 
excited and raced back and forth. A tiny 
red sea eel wriggled about. 


150 


THE GREEN GATE 


Boom! Splash! Splash! 

A great wave came rushing up and dashed 
itself against the rock, covering the children 
and their mother with salt spray. They had 
been standing with their backs to the sea, 
looking into the pool, and had not noticed how 
fast the tide was coming in. The rocks below 
them were already under water. 

Boom! Boom! Splash-sh! 

"Hurry, children! These rocks are covered 
at high tide. We should not have stayed so 
long!” cried their mother, leading the way 
from rock to rock until they were well out of 
reach of the waves. 

"Oh, but Fm glad we stayed!” cried Elinor. 

"So am I!” sighed Philip. 

As they hurried over the slippery seaweed — 
none too soon, for the tide was on the point of 
surrounding them — they saw many jelly-fishes 
lying stranded on the seaweed and pebbles. 

A few days before they had seen many of them 
floating in the water near shore, the design 
plainly visible on their shining, wet surfaces. 

"We didn’t bring home the hermit crab!” 
cried Philip, regretfully. 


THE HERMIT CRAB 


151 


“It wouldn't wait for us. Besides, it. was 
alive. We couldn't bring it home," said Elinor. 

“ But you will not forget him, will you ? " asked 
their mother, as they came to the beach again. 

“Oh, no, we shall not forget him," said the 
children. 

“Look at the lovely beach, dears. You will 
not forget that, either, even if you do not see 
it again, will you?" 

“No ! Our dear beach !" cried both children, 
looking up and down it. 

“This may be our last day on the beach this 
year," said Mummy. 

Then they all went rather sadly along the 
shining sand, up the plank walk, down the hill, 
through the Green Gate, along the garden walk, 
and into the big white house. 

That night, when the children were ready for 
bed, they asked for a story, as they had done 
so many times before. 

“This will be the last story-poem. What 
shall I tell you about, dears?" asked Mummy. 

“Oh, about a hermit crab!" cried Elinor. 

“Yes, about a hermit crab!" cried Philip. 

So she told them about the Hermit Crab. 


HERMIT CRAB 


Said a Hermit Crab, “This borrowed shell 
Has fitted till now extremely well; 

But I find that I’m growing so big and stout 
I shall be penned in if I don't look out! 

I think I will take a walk today, 

And find a new shell without delay." 

So he walked and he walked, and he soon caught 
sight 

Of a shell all shining and round and white. 
“Oho!" cried the Crab, “what a handsome 
shell! 

I think it will suit me very well!" 

So he gathered himself, and with one swift dash 
He leaped within, as quick as a flash! 

He squeezed down into it, bit by bit, 

And stretched to make sure 'twas a perfect fit, 
Then over the opening he placed his claw — 

A neater front door you never saw! 

His soft little back, with no covering on it, 
Pushed in like a head going into a bonnet. 


152 


THE HERMIT CRAB 


153 


Then he opened the door and he put out his head. 

"My new home is perfect !” the little Crab said. 

Out stretched his big claw, then his walking 
claw-feet; 

"Now Fm hungry!” he cried, "Fll get some¬ 
thing to eat!” 

With his home on his back, in a very gay mood, 

He ran toward a sea pool in search of some 
food. 


SILENT READING DIRECTIONS 

FOR 

THE GREEN GATE TO THE SEA 

By Laura Zirbes 

Investigator in Reading at the Lincoln School of Teachers College ; Lecturer in 
Elementary Education, Teachers College, Columbia University 

It is the purpose of this chapter to bring out some of the more 
intangible aims of instruction in silent reading, and to show how 
the material of this book may be used to further such aims. 

The soundest basis for interest is satisfying first-hand experi¬ 
ence related to the content, topic, or setting of the reading mat¬ 
ter, and a realization of the possibility of further satisfaction. Most 
children have had some first-hand experience with sand, water, 
shells, waves, or animals. Most children are not satiated with 
such experiences. They are full of curiosity about natural phe¬ 
nomena and eager for the adventures of new, vicarious experi¬ 
ences. That is the psychology upon which this book is based. 

School reading experiences should provide the impetus to in¬ 
quiry or observation as well as to appreciation; to study as well 
as to enjoyment. This purpose requires extensive silent reading. 

Individual differences in rate must be taken into account in 
planning silent reading activities (a) so that the slow reader 
realizes that his slow rate keeps him from privileges reserved for 
those who finish earlier; (6) so that the rapid reader is not re¬ 
quired to dawdle; (c) so that all may be reading at their own rates 
rather than keeping the place while others read; (d) so that ex¬ 
periences may be enriched for those who are able to read; (e) so 
that pupils of meager ability may not be confused by fragments 
of unsuccessful mental experience, or perhaps strained by the 
application of one rate standard to all. 

Individual differences in comprehension and appreciation are 
also inevitable, because of varied combinations of endowment, 
temperament, experience, sex, and maturity. They cannot be 


154 


SILENT READING DIRECTIONS 


155 


set aside but should be reflected in (a) flexible treatment of 
reading material — not one ironclad method or procedure; 
( b ) variety of content and material; (c) variety of appeal and 
response; (d) varied amounts of re-reading, review, or training. 

The right use of this book will further the following aims: 

Children should come to consider reading as (a) a mode of 
vicarious experience; ( b ) a worth-while leisure activity; ( c ) a 
source of ideas or a stimulus to thought and expression; ( d ) an 
experience with ideas in the order or sequence determined by an 
author or by a selective purpose. 

Suggested Silent Reading Experiences to Accompany Each 

Chapter 

I. The Sea Beach. After a brief perusal of the book, during 
which the name of the author and the table of contents are noted, 
introduce the first story by reading as far as the sentence, “ Oh, 
where do you suppose it leads to? ” Re-read the sentence, di¬ 
recting your question to some pupil. Let other children answer, 
trying to anticipate or foretell the answer. Let them read far 
enough to see whether their anticipation was correct. See whether 
they know where to stop. Let them raise hands to show you 

(1) where they stopped and (2) what the path led to. 

Let those who get these answers correct go on (1) reading and 

(2) following directions or questions like the following to be placed 
on the board as soon as the children begin to read: 

1. Do not do these things until you have shown your teacher 
where the path led to. 

2. Read on in this story until you come to something you would 
like to draw a picture about. Draw your picture so that it tells 
something that really happened in the story. When your picture 
is finished, go on with the story. 

3. When you finish the story look at the pictures again. Then 
close your book and think about the tides and the sea. 

Do not let all children have time to finish, so that those who 
are slow readers may feel a real urge to read faster, and those who 
finish early may not be required to waste time. 

Let children discuss their illustrations. If two or more chil- 


156 


THE GREEN GATE 


dren choose to illustrate the same part of the story, the best pic¬ 
ture should be selected by the class. Arrange the pictures in 
the order of occurrence in the story. Discuss parts of the story 
which were not illustrated. If there is an interest in completing 
the series, appoint (from those who have finished reading) a group 
of illustrators to re-read parts of the story and complete the pic¬ 
ture series. Let the other children who have finished reading help 
you to arrange a surprise for the illustrators. Meanwhile, children 
who still have a portion of the story to read may be allowed to 
complete it and then follow blackboard directions. 

The surprise may consist of a series of “ puzzles ” or questions. 
These should either be worked out by the group, or individually 
after the children get the idea in one or two examples. Children 
should be free to skim through the story again for a portion 
adapted to the purpose. This explanation and discussion should 
give pupils the idea and enlist their eager search for material: 

“ Let’s make some puzzles or questions. Here are some: ” 

(Write them where the children can see them.) 

1. What made a noise like a cannon? 

2. What is sand made of? 

3. What makes stones smooth ? 

(Ask) — “ Can you make more puzzles? ” 

Additional puzzles may be written on little individual slips or 
dictated to the teacher who writes them directly on a wall chart or 
blackboard. A chart or large sheet of paper is preferable because 
it can be preserved for future reference. 

The “ puzzle makers ” may then adjourn to see whether they 
can answer their own queries; or they may put their queries to 
the other group. If children express questions not answered in 
the story, they can be helped to find answers by observing nature, 
or by seeking information from books and other sources. 

Illustrations of the story should be signed by their makers, 
numbered and named by the group. Illustrations which are not 
true to the story should be changed or improved. If sheets of 
uniform size are used, these may then be fastened together in 
booklet form. 


SILENT READING DIRECTIONS 


157 


Perhaps some children will have had interesting seashore experi¬ 
ences. These should be related to the group if possible. 

Children who have been accustomed to formal oral reading 
recitations will be slower to adjust to a situation in which silent 
individual application alternates with free group activity. 

In the case of individuals who have been accustomed to reading 
at their own rates and have demonstrated the capacity and de¬ 
sire to read books through for the content, it may be wise to use 
this book in still another way, requiring fewer related activities 
and less evidence of comprehension. 

Little Green Pebble. Children will enjoy this poem more if it 
is read orally by the teacher, or by someone who is able to invest 
the reading with certain feeling values which denote and arouse 
appreciation. The charm of rhythm and rhyme, and the euphony 
of well chosen words may thus be communicated to the child. 
Formal analysis, questions of fact, intensive drill and review 
should be most carefully avoided in the case of verse. 

The children may wish to hear the selection again. That 
is one index of appreciation. Children can quite appropriately 
be asked to select the part they like best. This reaction in 
terms of choice is a most worth-while mode of appreciation. 
Children may then wish to express their appreciation of a 
particular bit of the poem by reading that bit or portion 
aloud. They may suggest other forms of expression. They 
may ask who wrote the “ story in verse,” and even try to 
express themselves in poetic forms. A lovely original line 
or couplet at this stage is enough unless more comes without 
effort or pressure. If the school day contains a period for 
rest or relaxation, and it is customary to start this period 
with a requested song, verse, or story, this offers another 
means of ascertaining whether this or other selections are truly 
appreciated. 

If some of the children are permitted to take books home, group 
activities will be less satisfactory. It is quite right to reserve 
some things for group reading, if there is also adequate provision 
for individual reading. Further suggestions assume group treat- 


158 


THE GREEN GATE 


ment. They are indicated briefly because of a number of consider¬ 
ations, some of which are here mentioned: 

1. So many possibilities have been described in connection with 
the preceding units that general lines of suitable activity have al¬ 
ready been indicated. 

2. There is a danger that teachers will study the suggestions 
and assume that they must be carried out in detail without re¬ 
gard to pupil reactions which may indicate the need for variation 
to suit conditions. 

3. The teacher’s own initiative as well as that of the children 
may find expression in other ways of reaching the same objectives. 

4. It may be entirely appropriate to get pupils into a book by 
cultivating enthusiasm. Thus the first part may be introduced in 
a manner which will build an urge to completion. When such an 
urge makes itself manifest on the part of a considerable number of 
pupils, it is a wise teacher who knows how to fade into the back¬ 
ground, or give her attention to those who have not turned on their 
own motive powers. With the latter, teachers need help in their 
most serious obligation, namely, interest building. As educational 
guides and students of the developing child, teachers must face 
the problem of the unresponsive or poorly motivated child, and 
work out ways of arousing satisfying activity, as for instance 
(a) providing one or more magnifying glasses; (6) having chil¬ 
dren look at sand or other minute specimens of sea life; (c) sug¬ 
gesting that they draw what they see through the glass. 

II. The Crab. Before beginning on this unit, children may 
give opinions as to whether the story goes on, or whether the se¬ 
lection is a separate unit of content. If there is disagreement, 
children should be asked to read until they find out, and rise when 
ready. No child should need to read more than two lines to 
make sure. The child who turns the page and reads on is perhaps 
not playing fair, but is yielding to an overpowering impulse to get 
on with the story. This is, of course, no serious crime, but either 
an indication of developing interest or an unsocial lapse. As 
an unsocial lapse, it should usually receive immediate attention 
in order that children may realize the significance of group action 


SILENT READING DIRECTIONS 


159 


and the need for inhibiting individual impulses, but still see the 
appropriateness of individual reading for their own enjoyment 
at other times. 

With able classes, the whole “ Crab ” story may well be read at 
a single sitting. As children finish their reading, time should be 
noted or they should be ranked with reference to rate of reading. 

More precise measures may also be made. The total number 
of words in the crab story is 1580. The teacher may say: 

“ I wonder whether you would like to read the ‘ Crab ’ story 
through to yourselves? I wonder how long it would take to read 
every bit of the story? Suppose you all begin to read right now.” 

(After two minutes) — “ Please stop and show me with your 
finger just where you stopped reading. I see some of you will 
need more time than others. I am making marks to show where 
you stopped.” 

After all children’s books have been marked the teacher says: 

“ Now put a slip of paper into your book as a bookmark. Write 
your name on it. I shall collect the books and figure out how much 
time each person would need to finish the story. Then, tomorrow, 
we shall see whether we can find time for everyone to finish the 
story.” (Or children may count words read in two minutes and 
divide by two to get rate in words per minute. Then, with the 
table on page 160, they may find how long it will take them to 
finish.) 

On the basis of words read per minute during the two minutes, 
the teacher may ascertain the approximate time required by each 
child for the whole story. Children who read less than sixty 
words per minute seldom derive much genuine satisfaction from 
independent silent reading of long units. They seldom compre¬ 
hend adequately when struggling along alone. Precise rate stand¬ 
ards cannot be interpreted to apply to non-test material, but it is 
entirely possible to use part of an unstandardized selection as 
an informal rate test and compare the results with data from 
standardized tests. Thus by using the “ Crab ” selection on a 
number of children the following data were secured for comparison 
with Courtis rate norms for silent reading: 


160 


THE GREEN GATE 


Rate, in Words 
per Minute. 


Courtis Grade III norm.113 

Average of Grade III pupils on “ Crab ” selection .... 105 

Courtis Grade IV norm.145 

Average of Grade IV pupils on “ Crab ” selection . . . . 131 

Courtis Grade V norm.168 

Average of Grade V pupils on “ Crab ” selection . . . . 162 


Thus it may be seen that the “ Crab ” selection is just a trifle 
more difficult than the Courtis Test stories. This indicates that 
it is easy enough for most third-grade pupils and may even be en¬ 
joyed by the exceptional reader in the second grade. In grades 
above the third all pupils should be able to read the book silently. 

Children can learn to estimate the time required to read a given 
number of words, lines, or pages, and to realize improvement 
from such objective evidence. For the teacher’s convenience, the 
time requirements have been worked out and are given in the 
following table. The nearest whole minute should be used. 

Rate, in Words Minutes Required to 


per Minute. 

Read 

1580 Words. 

60 

2 1 

+ 

24 

70 

2 

+ 

21 

80 

2 

+ 

18 

90 

2 

+ 

16 

100 

2 

+ 

14 

110 

2 

+ 

12 

120 

2 

+ 

11 

130 

2 

+ 

10 

140-150 

2 

+ 

9 

160-170 

2 

+ 

8 

180-210 

2 

+ 

6 

220-250 

2 

+ 

5 

260-280 

2 

+ 

4 

290-300 

2 

+ 

3 


1 Children start where they left off, having already read during two of the total 
number of minutes. 







SILENT READING DIRECTIONS 


161 


While rate expressed in “ words per minute ” makes differences 
in amount read seem small, the great differences in time required 
to read long units should make low rate a matter of concern. Per¬ 
haps this explains differences in amount of voluntary reading. If 
comparisons are to be made on the basis of test results, there 
should, of course, be no preparatory discussion or explanation to 
supplement the directions as given to the test cases, nor should 
children be urged to read fast or to put forth unusual effort. 

Questions on the chapter were used to test the comprehension 
of pupils. Complete directions are here given with these ques¬ 
tions in the form of a questionnaire. Two of the children tested 
out in the preliminary trial of these questions made perfect scores 
of 20 points. One was in the third grade and read at the rate of 
98 words per minute. The other was in the fifth grade and read 
only 82 words per minute. Both were deeply interested in the 
story. The lowest score (13) was made by a fourth-grade child 
who read 158 words per minute. She has never been to the sea¬ 
shore and she has not shown deep interest in reading. Most of 
the children tested scored 15 points, and all were able to correct 
wrong answers independently by reference "to the book. 

Shortly before this informal test, all children had been given 
the three standardized reading tests of the Stanford Achievement 
Tests for which age norms are available. These tests show that 
a reading age of ten years is adequate for the independent compre¬ 
hension and enjoyment of the stories in this book. It should of 
course be remembered that less ability is necessary when the book 
is used with guidance. 

DIRECTIONS TO CHILDREN 
(To be given orally by the teacher.) 

“ Sometimes we read to find out, and sometimes we read just to 
get the story. Which were you doing?” (Designate one or two 
children by name and wait for replies.) 

“ Did you enjoy the story? Did you find out some things you 
never knew before?” (Encourage a few brief replies.) “Don’t 
start to tell me what you did find out. There are so many things 


162 


THE GREEN GATE 


to tell, and so many of you, that we should waste time waiting to 
take our turns. There is a quicker way of finding out. It is a 
way used by grown people in offices, and other busy places. Have 
you ever heard of a questionnaire ? ” (Put the word on the board.) 
“ What do you suppose it is? Well, here is a questionnaire about 
this story. When you have filled in the blanks, I will tell you how 
busy people find out a great many things in a few minutes by means 
of a questionnaire.” (The questionnaire may be on the blackboard 
or on mimeographed sheets; or children can turn to questions in 
this part of the book and use a questionnaire answer blank on 
which there are places for name, date, grade, and age, and blank 
spaces after the numbers of questions 1 to 19.) 

“ I am passing out the questionnaires but must ask you to leave 
them face down on your desks until I say, ‘ Begin.’ 

“ Now listen, so that you may do everything as it is supposed to 
be done. Read each question carefully, and answer it as well as 
you can. If you are sure you cannot answer, leave the space blank, 
and go on. Answer briefly. Do not use more words than you 
need to answer each question. 

“ There should be no talking while you are at work. Begin.” 

(After the children get to work, post a blackboard assignment 
for those who finish early.) 

The teacher should have a key or answer sheet prepared in ad¬ 
vance. Answers which are not clearly correct make good material 
for a verification lesson in which the children use their books. 
Make group decisions on such answers. Pupils whose answers are 
not so clear as their ideas, may thus learn to say just what they 
mean if they wish to be understood. 

The data on each question and on each child should then be 
tabulated by the class as is done in questionnaire studies. Sig¬ 
nificant conclusions may well be reached by the children who study 
the tabulated data for evidence. 

Questions like the following lead to careful reading and aid in 
the discussion and interpretation of tabulated data on rate and 
comprehension: 


SILENT READING DIRECTIONS 


163 


1. Which questions seemed to be the hardest? 

2. Which children seem to read most carefully? 

3. Which ones seem to skip while they read? 

4. Which ones get wrong ideas ? 

5. Is it true that the fast readers make the most mistakes ? 

6. Is it true that the slowest readers are the best readers? 

7. Which children should be asked to re-read the selection and 
find correct answers ? While such children are re-reading and cor¬ 
recting their work, the others may make up a story about one of 
the illustrations or draw pictures of the various crabs. Such 
picture series should be preserved, in booklet form. Each picture 
should have a legend or title. 

QUESTIONNAIRE 

Name - Grade -— Date - 

1. Who went to the beach in this story? 

2. Was the tide coming in or going out at the beginning of the 
story ? 

3. Did the tide turn while they were at the beach? 

4. What was the first thing the children did? 

5. Who cried? 

6. Why? 

7. Did the children find oyster shells? 

8. What is funny about crab shells? 

9. What makes the air bubbles that come up when the waves 
retreat ? 

10. How would you pick up a rabbit? 

Did you read about that in this story ? 

11. How would you pick up a crab? 

12. Why? 

13. What is queer about a crab’s eyes? 

14. How does a crab run ? 

15. How many legs has a crab? 

16. Are baby crabs just like grown-up crabs, but smaller? 

17. Why did they look at the white rock? 

18. Where were the children at the end of the story? 

19. What was going to happen next? 





164 


THE GREEN GATE 


Scoring Directions. Mark wrong answers X and omissions O ; 
correct answers score 1; disregard the answer to the first part of 
Number 10. In the first question, give 2 points, if the answer is 
complete, and 1 point if correct but incomplete. The total pos¬ 
sible score is 20 points. 

Mr. Crab. This rhymed dialogue should be used playfully. 
The children may participate by reading the first part of the first 
and second lines. The teacher then reads the balance of the se¬ 
lection. Children may pretend to pick up the crab and let it 
go at the appropriate point in the fifth stanza. They may also 
say the last “ Good-by ” at the end. The children should have 
a real crab to observe, if possible. They may study the illustra¬ 
tions and then make a set of crab pictures themselves. 

III. The Starfish. In this selection, the fitness of the title is 
not immediately apparent. Tell the children to read the first 
paragraph, or read it aloud to them. Then ask, “ Is it about star¬ 
fish? What is it about? ” Ask whether the children would like 
to play the game of “ Finding Out ” with each page or paragraph. 
Ask each one to answer the two questions to himself as he reads. 

Children should see a preserved starfish or good pictures of 
live starfishes. The part of the selection that tells of the variety 
of lovely colorings may lead children to make colored drawings of 
these little sea animals in their habitat. 

Asteria. The meaning of this word will interest the children. 
It may suggest imaginative compositions on such topics as: 

Why the Starfish Looks Like a Star. 

The Starfish Who Lost a Point. 

The Adventures of the Sea Maiden, Asteria. 

Such original compositions are suitable as oral reading material. 
Children read their stories to the class in a true audience situation. 

IV. The Horseshoe Crab. Both the prose and verse selection 
should be read. The feasibility of floating seaweeds on cards may 
be discussed. This may lead to vacation work. Children from 
eight to ten years of age have been known to enjoy this experience 
and to make very creditable collections. 

V. The Sea Urchin. The question, “ What shall we find to- 


SILENT READING DIRECTIONS 


165 


day? ” may lead to conjectures on the part of the children who 
then read to see whether their anticipation is correct. 

This selection contains a thrilling incident which should be read 
without a break or interruption. The children may then illustrate 
or discuss the incident or ask questions on related geographical 
problems. An informational reference reading lesson may be ad¬ 
visable if these questions are sufficiently worth while. Such as¬ 
signments to reference books should be specific and definite. 
Each child should be allowed to report his findings to the class. 

This selection also contains a list of things found by Elinor and 
Philip. Children may be assigned to make a list of this sort while 
reading. The children who make full or complete lists could be 
allowed to go on while others re-read to make their lists complete. 
Sketches to illustrate the list may be made and placed with those 
of previous selections. 

General Suggestions for Remaining Chapters 

From this point on it may well be advisable to let children read 
by themselves, with just enough of a test of comprehension to 
make sure that they are getting the meaning as they go. Brief 
sets of questions on each chapter may be typed or copied on 
cards and filed. Two or three copies of each set will suffice as 
children will not all need them at the same time. When a child 
finishes a selection, he should go to a file, get the question card 
which pertains to his selection, and answer orally or on a slip of 
paper. If his answers are satisfactory, he may be allowed to go on 
with the next selection. Certain children may be assigned or 
allowed to illustrate each selection in some way. The illustrations 
may then be assembled and put in booklet form or added to the 
frieze suggested in connection with the first story in the book. 
Questions on Chapter VII, “The Sand Dollar,” are suggested 
below. Similar sets of questions may be prepared for the re¬ 
maining chapters. 

Questions. 1. Did they find a silver dollar in the sand? 
2. What did they have to try three times before they succeeded ? 


166 


THE GREEN GATE 


3. What new thing did they find for their collection? 4. Was 
it alive? 

Final Questions 

(To be asked of children who complete the book.) 

1. Which of all the rhymes did you like best? 2. Which of 
all the stories? 3. Of all the things which Philip and Elinor did, 
which would you like best to do ? 4. See how many little seashore 

animals you can name. 5. Look at afi the pictures and try to 
remember the names of the animals. 6. Then try again, to see 
whether you can name more of the little animals. 

Final Suggestions 

The whole class may reorganize the content of the book and 
present it as an informational entertainment for another class. 
The accumulated illustrations may be utilized for such a purpose. 

Some of the pictures in each child’s book may be masked by 
putting paper windows over the pages, allowing only the pictures, 
without the legends, to show through. Each child’s book should 
show a different picture or pictures. A game of picture recogni¬ 
tion may thus be utilized. Children respond by giving the name 
of the pictured animal or by numbering a list of names to accord 
with the number placed on the picture frame, below the illustra¬ 
tion in the book. 

If possible, children should make a collection of real specimens, 
and use the pictures and descriptions in the book for purposes of 
identification. An identification game like the following will 
lead to re-reading and make the content of the book a source of 
further interest and investigation : 

One child describes one of the creatures or specimens without 
naming it. Other children volunteer to show the picture and name 
the specimen. Each response is verified. The first child to re¬ 
spond takes his turn at description. 

The best educational uses of this book are those which, com¬ 
bined, lead to the widest growth. Formal training should be sub¬ 
ordinated with material so rich in content and so full of stimulus 
to investigation and activity. 24 






































































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